My King is
by sabrina39
Summary: The King of Demons has been discovered. Friends can and will betray each other. Anything can happen. Including the return of the Masked Fighter. But who is it this time, if it's not Genkai? Updates again soon.
1. Who is the King?

_I do not own YYH, such fantasies are not appreciated in my house. In fact, a whole lot of odd things are appreciated in my house...it just happens that pretending to own someone else's stuff isn't one of them. Therefore I don't own it. However disclaimers on my characters are at the bottom._

The King sighed and flicked a fly off his computer screen. Just because he was now King of the Underworld did not mean that he was forbidden to electrical appliances.

He'd overthrown Koenma...what seemed like a millennia ago. Maybe it had been. Time seemed very unimportant now that demonic life had supplied him with immortality.

'Send,' he clicked, instantly sending a message to fighters world-wide. This time it wouldn't be his life on the line, it'd be others. Now he understood why demons with so much power killed so often. If there was no use for it, then it became a bore. The King had become bored with his powers. No one proved to be worthy of his challenge anymore.

So now he was starting his own tournament. Ayame had come up with the name; he'd fired Botan. She'd been one of the ones who'd stood up for Koenma, thus, she had to be taken care of. Hiei and Kurama had quickly turned against him after that; they'd enforced Koenma along with Botan. Kuwabara was still loyal to Yusuke, and so was Genkai, but they weren't too fond of how the Underworld was run.

The others: Keiko, Yukina, and Shizuru, had all either been supporters of Koenma or had gone missing. Keiko had a pretty skyrocketing bounty on her head; Yusuke was still looking for her. Yukina had supported Koenma; and had been dealt with accordingly. Shizuru had disappeared into the shadows of the night; gone forever. What had happened to the former prince of the

Underworld?

Nobody knew.

No one but Yusuke, that is.

The King stared at the screen for a bit before signing off. He swiveled around in his chair, turning to see Ayame behind him.

"Do you need something?" he prompted, raising an eyebrow.

"Sir," she greeted him, bowing courteously. Her black hair flipped over her eyes, and she brushed it away in annoyance. "I'm afraid that Hanging Neck Island has been posted for reconstruction, meaning it is nearly impossible for use"

The King sighed, irritated. "Find somewhere else, then"

"I'm afraid no one is willing to allow us to use their grounds"  
The King slammed his fist down on his, and the former Prince's, desk in anger. "I'm the King, damnit, and I'll do what I please! Force them to, then."

Ayame recoiled at her leader's sudden rush of temper. "Yes, sir." She bowed a second time, exiting. She passed one of the newer pupils in the hallway, another ferry girl. Her name was Eijiro, Ayame recalled.

Eijiro cowered by the door, gripping a piece of paper tightly. Ayame shook her head slightly, signaling it was a bad idea for the newer girl to go in. The new ferry girl flicked a long piece of her short violet hair in Ayame's direction, gathered her wits and walked in, un-announced, on the King.

"Sir," she said, bowing. "Mr. Hiei wanted me to give you this." She held out the paper tentatively. The King swatted it away.

"Whatever he has to say to me," the King growled, "he can say to my face at the tournament"  
Eijiro began to argue, but the hand of Ayame caught over her mouth and pulled her back. Ayame's angry eyes glared into Eijiro's as she rebuked her.

"I'm sorry," Eijiro apologized. "But Mr. Hiei said it was important"

"I don't care what Hiei says!" Aayme hissed at the frightened ferry girl. "As long as he stays in Demon World where he belongs, it is of no concern to us"

Eijiro nodded, sorry she'd been mistaken. Ayame straightened her kimono, unruffling her feathers. "Gomen," she apologized, walking off.

Eijiro watched her mentor go, sighing. Ayame-san never seemed to be happy with her. The sad ferry girl picked up her oar and headed out of the main hall. A soft hand landed on her shoulder, making her look up.

Hinageshi-san's kind eyes met Eijiro's. "Don't listen to her," she whispered, smiling and continuing walking, her hand trailing off Eijiro's shoulder like white mist.  
Eijiro watched both Ayame-san and Hinageshi-san walk off to finish up their rounds. Work for their new King never ended. He was such a commanding ruler that no one even tried to disobey him. If he was powerful enough to overthrow Koenma, then there wasn't anyone willing to stand up to him. No one with enough power to defeat him existed. Except, possibly, for Yusuke Urameshi.

The explosive anger of the King fluttered out into the hall, papers scattering everywhere. Eijiro reached down and picked up one.

It was a photograph; back when the King was still friends with Hiei-san and Kurama-kun. Yusuke-kun stood in-between the two reformed demons, the demon heir's face faded with the age of the photo.

"Still recalling old memoirs?" came the taunting voice of Hotaru-chan from inside. She'd been a friend of the King since before he'd been King, and a former spirit detective for Koenma to boot. Hotaru-chan was especially antagonizingly happy that she was the only one who could mock the King and get away with it, and she let everyone know it, too.

"Shut up," growled the King. Eijiro tried to move her feet; eavesdropping, especially on her liege, was wrong. But her feet didn't budge.

"I remember this one," Hotaru said, shuffling some papers. "It's Keiko, ne"

The King snarled in response. "Just go do what you're good for, Hotaru"

Hotaru's howl's of laughter could have been heard from outside of the building. "You don't actually expect me to belive that, do you"

The King cut her off. "Get out!" he shouted. Hotaru said something in a softer tone, then breezed out of the room. She passed Eijiro without notice, red hair flaring out behind her, hiding her face.

"Good for nothing bitch..." the King mumbled. Eijiro regained control of her feet and shot off down the hall, her oar slapping against her thigh.

The King waited until he was sure both Eijiro and Hotaru were gone before stacking his precious papers. They were his only connection to the friend he had once been, and to the humanity he had once clung to.

Now he was King of the Underworld and a demon. What did memories matter, anyway?  
The King looked down sadly at his photos and longed for the life he'd once had. The tournament was partly to draw back some of the friends who had dropped him like a hot rock when he'd overthrown Koenma Diaoh. Partly to draw back Keiko and Yukina. Partly because he was bored with so much power.

He scoffed at his papers and shoved them to the side, wistful thoughts.

Logging back on the Internet, the King found that he had three new messages. One from Genkai, one from a kitsune he'd had the pleasure of having a run-in with, and one from an unknown user. He clicked on that one first.

_**ku2yu wrote:**_

_I accept._

A/N: Okies, first, I do not own yahoo. Second, I just made up that address off the top of my head, so don't try mailing it. And also, I do actually own Hotaru-chan and Eijiro-chan. So nobody can have them. snatches away characters Anyway, I require characters in order to carry out this tournament, so you all will have to be helpful and give me some. The only requirements I have for them; one, they canNOT be paired with Kurama or Hiei. If you ask nicely then just MAYBE I might let you. But feel free to ask for any other character. And for the profiles, please remember to include a history (unless you want to make me do the work and make it up for you), a DETAILED personality, and DETAILED appearance. Also please do include what sort of demon they are unless they are human, and a nationality please.

I have a challenge for everybody! Anyone who an guess who the King is will be put on the winning team! Only you won't find out till the end. But eventually it will become more apparent. And also, if you read one chapter, please continue to read the rest. And no flames please. Flames will only be used to scramble my eggs. And possibly toast up my cinnamon toast.

Oh yes; for profiles, use the general list, and please include any special features, habits, weapons and or techniques, and if you are a demon I've never heard of please describe it to me.  
And that's it for now I guess. The next chapter will be coming as soon as I get at least three reviews, so till then, ja ne!  
G


	2. ku2yu to roking34

Again, I do not own YYH. I own Hotaru-chan and Eijiro-chan. 

Eijiro hopped up on her oar, soaring into the night sky. Ningenkai nights were so beautiful. The stars sparkled. The streets were silent. She inhaled the frigid night air deeply. It smelled cool and clean, unlike the smoky airs of the Reikai. This was a moment so rare for Eijiro, since the King always had her and Ayame running his errands. A moment of peace.

"HI EIJIRO!"

Eijiro faltered, her oar dropping from the sky. She righted herself and caught her oar before hitting the paved streets of Tokyo.

An old friend of Eijiro's stood feet away. She waved her arm relentlessly back and forth, so quickly Eijiro barely saw it moving. Her friend barreled towards her, her long sky blue braid swinging behind her.

"Kayla!" Eijiro greeted, trying to catch her breath beneath Kayla's rib-breaking bear hug. Kayla stood back, her thin violet eyes skimming Eijiro. "You got taller," Kayla informed her. "And I think your hair got longer."

Eijiro nodded, gasping for breath. Kayla's hugs were killer. (A/N: I fell victim to the real Kayla's bear hug...I think I'm still suffering from that...and it was in the 4th grade)

"That's great, Kay," said Eijiro, recollecting her composure, "is there some reason you're in Ningenkai?" She dusted off her kimono, and her oar vanished in a blip.

Kayla seemed to think for a minute before answering. "I got an e-mail," she said, "About your King's, eh...tournament-thing."

Eijiro nearly choked on her next words. "He invited you?"

Kayla nodded. "Yeah. Me and the whole TC team."

The air seemed to grow chilly all of a sudden. Eijiro pulled her kimono tightly around her thin body. "So are you Kayla or Rei this time?" she asked her.

"I'm not sure," Kayla said, pausing. (A/N: KAY! PICK ONE)

Eijiro sighed, her night-watch beeping insistently. "I have to go," she apologized, hopping back on her reappearing oar. "But I'll see you at the tournament?" Kayla nodded. Eijiro smiled as she plowed through the blanket that was the night sky.

Hotaru looked around the Reikai main hall. No one had stuck around. They were either out on night business or had all gone home.

She crept around the walls, inching along until she came to the huge ascending staircase that would lead her back up to the King's chambers. She needed to speak with him. In private.  
Climbing the stairs as carefully as possible, Hotaru made her way upstairs and into the hall of the King's chambers. She lifted her hand, ready to knock, when she heard a light sound come from inside. Instantly she dropped her hand and pressed an ear to the door.

Light tapping sounds sounded from inside, almost as if the King were typing. Hotaru's demon senses kicked in, her hearing picking up the distinct click-click of computer keys.  
She raised an eyebrow, and bent down to take a look at the King through the keyhole. His back was turned to her, and the computer screen illuminated his face blue.

Hotaru snickered. Her King was probably talking to one of the ex-members of the Urameshi team again. She stood, her eyes leaving the keyhole. She opened the door, careful not to make a sound. Quietly she snuck in, clasped her hands behind her back, and began to read over the King's shoulder.

_ku2yu: hey _

_roking34: hey yourself _

_ku2yu: how's work?  
roking34: a hassle.  
ku2yu: yeah. mine 2.  
roking34: what do u do 4 a living anyway?  
ku2yu: whatever i can get.  
roking34: that's great._  
_ku2yu: u?  
roking34: same.  
ku2yu: i'm pretty sure outr jobs r 2 vey different worlds.  
roking34: u r probably right.  
ku2yu: can i ask u a question _

_roking34: shoot _

_ku2yu: whatever happened to the koenma loyalists? what did the king do w/ them?  
roking34: idk ku2yu: i think u do.  
roking34: r u coming to the tournament?  
ku2yu: yes, and don't change the subject.  
roking34: whatever u say.  
ku2yu: _

_roking34: hello?_

_ku2yu has just signed out._

The King sat back, logging off as roking34. "How long have you been standing there?" he asked Hotaru without turning around.

Hotaru froze. "Not that long," she replied, her cool returning.

The King nodded slightly. "I belive you."

Hotaru gawked. This was unlike her King. He was never sober. "Who were you talking to?" she asked.

"You can read," the King informed her, showing her the screen. "I'm going to bed."

Hotaru took one last look at the screen before turning around and dismissing it. She left the room without another word, the King closing the door behind her.

A/N: OK! I know that was short, but I promise It'll get longer once the fights start. Um...to my reviewers...

Magus Black: I'D LURVE IT IF U'D SEND ME THOSE CHARACTERS! PLEEEEZ

Ana39: That's great K but tell me if u want to be called K or Rei.

And anybody else please send in chracters. I'd really appreiciate that.  
Also...um...I need a few suggestions for team names, if anyone has any, please send them to me. And let me know if you would like to be a member of the TC team (a demon team, usually cats). Or even the infamous Urameshi team, which needs at least one more member. I have another contest coming up as soon as I get some characters and am able to put together a whole team. Please let me know your comments and such...blah blah. Um...I think that's it. Until next time,  
JA NE!

And also I do not own Kay's character Kayla!  
-G


	3. A King's past

OKies, this is just an author's note. 

To all people who wish to be paired with somebody: YOU MAY HAVE THEM. Except first convince me why you should have them, and then they're all yours. Er--your characters. Whatever.

Also, please NO ONE ASK TO BE PAIRED WITH HIEI. Just a warning. You can ask for him to be flirty with you--BUT NO ASKING TO BE HIS GIRLFRIEND OR LOVER OR EX ANYTHING. Friends, that's it.

To anyone who asks to e-mail characters to me: I'm sorry but I cannot do that. I can't give out my e-mail to people I don't know. Just review. I don't mind people who ramble. I do that. A lot. So feel free. Um, I suppose I could give out one of my many addresses, but please review, because I can't reply to any messages sent to me, unless I know you. So...only Ana39 applies to this. And redangel (I forgot all the numbers.) and V.

So far the only people who've asked for a pairing have been pretty nice about it, so I may just cave and let you have them. But for Pete's sake please say WHY. I'm not about to let you just HAVE them. Unless nobody else asks for them. But if more than one person wants a character to be paired with, you have to give me a good reason...please? There's already two people who've asked for Kurama. One for Touya. Nobody like Jin? And if you'd like to be paired with Kurama; pick: Suichii or Yoko?

And about the King...here's a little snippet of the King's past.

-------

A shoe whacked into the wall.

"I hate you so much!" cried Keiko, holding her other shoe in her hand. "How could you even think of doing such a thing, Yusuke!"

Yusuke dodged another flying shoe. "It's not my fault!" he shouted back. "Koenma just quit!"

"No he didn't!" she screamed, tears streaming down her face. "This stupid...King killed him! How could you let this happen?" She covered her face with her hands and sank to her knees.

Yusuke took a step towards her. She sobbed, causing him to halt.

_"Don't bother,"_ Yusuke heard the King's thoughts. _"She's not worth it."_

Yusuke looked around. The King's thoughts seemed to float into his head frequently, especially when in demon form. He didn't get it--didn't understand. He looked down at Keiko again. His first thought was to comfort her and tell her Koenma didn't really die. But he had this fleeting memory that kept trying to surface: he'd watched Koenma die. And he'd seen the King kill him.

_The King's hands were bloody with the Prince's blood. He never once turned to Yusuke, but said instead, "Revenge only takes revenge upon itself."_

_He turned, but for the moment his face should have been revealed, he vanished. Yusuke looked down. The King had splattered him before he'd gone._

_Splattered him with Koenma Diaoh's blood._


	4. Memories

I do not own YYH. As I have said many times before. 

I do own Hotaru-chan, Eijiro, and the King's screen name, and ku2yu.

I do not own Kayla Okudo, Alianore, Shira Trusea, Kay, or any of her six voices in her head. If I have listed your character that means I will use them. Thank you very much.

Notes:

To Dragonheart 7: Yes, I do like your team name very much, thank you.

To pices Aquarius: Thank you for keeping up with my story so far. And thanx for Alinore. And-grudging voice: --I guess you can have Kurama. IF no one else asks for him. Only IF.

And to anyone I missed: Let me know if you want me to acknowledge you up here.

--------

The King opened his eyes sleepily.

_"Yusuke!" called Keiko. "There you are! Up on the roof again!"_

The King frowned. Too many human memories still remained.

_Hiei glared at Kurama. "Kurama. Don't make me pull out your precious voicebox."_

The King threw his blanket off onto the floor and catapulted out of bed. It was time to take Hotaru up on an offer she'd made him long before he'd been King.

_"Rose whip!"_

Doors slammed open and closed as the King searched the Reikai up and down. He finally burst into Hotaru's room.

_"Hey! Dimwit!" called Genkai._

"Hotaru!" he shrieked, waking her. She shot up out of bed, the sheets falling off her naked body.

The King looked away. "Put some clothes on," he growled. Hotaru complied.

_"Puu!"_

"Do you need something?" Hotaru-chan yawned. The King nodded.

_"HEY, URAMESHI! I'M TALKING TO YOU!" Kuwabara shouted._

The King gripped his head tightly. "Erase my memories. Please."

_"YUSUKE!" Keiko cried, the Dark Tournament finally over._

Hotaru raised an eyebrow. "Come with me." she said, leading the King from her chambers. He followed like a faithful lapdog.

The King said nothing as Hotaru placed her hands on his temples. "I can't guarantee anything," she said. "And this means you probably won't remember much."

He nodded. "Anything. Just get them out of my head."

Hotaru nodded soberly. She closed her eyes. The King closed his eyes.

-------

Minutes later Hotaru dropped her hands. "I can't." she informed him.


	5. Hold no hope

I do not own YYH. That has become a frequent part of my vocabulary recently. 

OKies, first off--to the A/N!

Hm...let me think here...-gets out sheet of paper and looks at reviews- this is o so confusing me. And I lurve all my reviewers! -hands out cookies- And I adore cookies. And coffee. Thank you so much everybody for reviewing...I feel appriciated. -sniff sniff-

To specific people:

Magus Black: OK please continue with your greatlessyness of detailing things, but please keep leaving your characters on the review thing (I will just have to delete them.) And also...I cannot have the two characters you already sent me on the same team, so is it okey dokey if they are on different teams? This may mean that they are enemies, or tell me if you want them to be friends. Allies. Whatever.

Ana39: Sorry Kay but I have to change your name to Rei. There's another Kay on here...and also you have to be on the TC team. Dork. JK. -frying pans...hee hee Kayla Dawn...hit L for me with it-

Pices Aquarius: Thank you for Alianore.

DargonHeart 7: Thank you for Shira Trusea.

And to anyone I missed:

Thank you for reviewing! -grin, hands cookies out-

_ACCEPT THE COOKIES!_  
------------

Hotaru looked up at her King. "I can't do it," she said hoarsly, as if using her voice caused her pain. "I'm sorry. I just...can't. Not now."

The King grasped Hotaru's shoulder, shaking her violently. "And why the hell not!"

Hotaru shoved her King off. "You need those memories!" she cried, her face clearly showing that she was upset. "You'd die without them! What would you be without the Reikai Tantai?"

"I'd still be King!" he shrieked, advancing towards her menacingly. "And I still am! Do as I say!"

"No!" she shouted. "You never gave a damn about the Spirit Detectives until now, why should now be any diffrent!" She took a step back, fear tracing her steps.

The King snarled, grabbing Hotaru by her shirt collar, raising her up off the ground. She choked and gagged, thrashing against her King. "Do as I say," he growled maliciously. "Or suffer the concequences."

"I'd rather die than listen to you," she spat in his face, "I take orders from no man."

Enraged, the King hurled her across the room and crashing into the stone walls. Bricks smashed with the force of the King's blow, sending Hotaru crumbling to the floor. The King eyed his mess for a moment, then turned to walk away. He would have to find someone else to do his bidding.

A scraping of stone made the King pause. He turned in time to see Hotaru stir and stand, unfazed. She licked a trickle of blood off her wrist and sized up her King.

"Where do you think you're going?" she snipped. "I'm not finished."

With a raise of his eyebrows the King muttered, "Apparently not." He faced Hotaru, waiting for her to dare strike him, the King, her King.

With a force so strong it shocked even the King, Hotaru struck out at him with the pointed heel of her black boot, smashing his jaw to bits. He reeled back, mostly out of surprise. Blood splashed out of his mouth and onto the carpet.

Hotaru stood defiant, her violet eyes blazing. "Don't think I would stand under your name docile for long," she snapped, "I'm a demon; I don't _have_ loyalties."

The King stood, rubbing his sore jaw, the bone already stitching back together. Hotaru's kick to the mouth had surprised him greatly: Hotaru had never before shown any hostility since the days of her Reikai Tantai's end. Nor did she ever remind anyone of her demon heritage; she always had seemed as if she had wanted to be human.

"What's the matter?" Hotaru interuppted her leige's thoughts. "Are you too high and mighty to strike back?" She smirked, knowing she'd pushed a red button.

The King frowned, suddenly irked by Hotaru's sudden sense of induviduality and independence. "You irritate me, Hotaru." he said, a smile spreading across his face. "That's why I've kept you around for so long."

Hotaru shifted slightly, caught off guard. The King took the advantage and eased up over to her side. He combed his fingers through her silky red hair; so like Kurama's hair. She stiffened, but did not move. She let her King play with her hair, let him stand behind her, completely open to attack.

Hotaru's back straightened, and she turned to face her King, looking up to meet his beautiful brown eyes. She stared hard into the merciless eyes that betrayed no hint of human life, and spit, "Stop toying with me."

Her King looked taken aback. "Why would I do such a thing?"

"You don't love me," she snarled, pushing him away, "You never did. You still love Ukimura."

With a saddened expression he corrected, "Yusuke loved Ukimura. I harbor no such feelings. No. Not against or for."

Hotaru loked hurt. "Be realistic. You do. I know it. You know it. The entire Reikai knows it."

"And so what if I do?" he challenged. "Is it wrong to love two people?"

"That's just it!" she cried softly. "You _can't!_ It's not right, and it's not _fair!_ You must pick one. One and one only!"

"Can I pick later?" the King asked, sidling up to Hotaru. She frowned, but let herself be led back to her chambers. This might be the last night she spent with the King. She intended on leaving the next morning. Find the Koenma-supporters.

The King frowned slightly as Hotaru's beautiful features troubled themselves. He didn't know how to choose one. How could he pick, when he loved both? One was nearer; Hotaru, but the other was far away, but dearer; Keiko Ukimura.

He shook his head. Now was not the time for idle fantasies. Especially not something that even the Great Yusuke Urameshi could not attain.

The King sighed. He held no hope for either love.

------------

Two pairs of Kitsune ears pricked up. Kurama strolled into the room, and the two kitsune demons relaxed.

One kitsune, Alianore, was Kurama's decoy fighter in this new _"tournament invatation"_ the King of the Underworld had sent out. Her black tail with the white swirl swished impatiently, her black fox ears pinned back. Her grey eyes waited for Kurama to say something, say something, say anything.

But he kept silent as he busied himself in a stack of papers, stacking and reading and more stacking.

The other kitsune, Saiko, sat braiding the impatient Alinore's long brown hair. Saiko's own short black hair stuck out in various places as she rolled on the couch lazily. Her red eyes watched Alianore watch Kurama-kun, which she soon became bored with and went back to braiding her fellow demon's hair.

"Well?" Alianore prompted. Kurama looked up, but didn't comment. She tried again. _"Well?"_

"Well?" Saiko echoed for the sake of wanting to be included. Her black fox ears pinned back to match Alianore's, and her black tail swished slowly back and forth with boredom.

Kurama looked at them without lifting his head. "Do you need something?" he asked tartly.

Alianore looked offended. "That's no way to speak to a lady, Suichii-kun."

Kurama turned back to his papers and said nothing. The two kitsunes sat uncomfortably in the eerie silence that followed. The only sound was Kurama shuffling his papers until Alianore got up and declared, "I'm going out."

Saiko stood. "I'm coming," she grinned, yawning. Kurama still commented nothing when they closed the door. He jumped slightly with the slam of the door, but then stood and went to the window.

Upon opening it, Hiei climbed through. "I assume the vixen's are gone?" he said. Kurama nodded. Hiei shouldered his way past Kurama and opened a closet in the hallway. Yukina looked up from inside the closet, her crimson eyes wet with tears.

"Yusuke..." she cried, "he's dying."


	6. Okaeri

I do not own YYH. THIS IS LIKE THE SIXTH TIME I'VE TOLD YOU PEOPLE THAT! 

**A/N:**

Hm...-scratches head- well, first off, I have to say that I am at quite the dilemma here. For once in my life I'm out of characters, and there definitely aren't enough to start the fights. But here is my slow and pain-staking progress--

Team Ukishima: (the 1st fighter listed is captain)  
1. Masked Fighter

2. Alianore

3. Kay

4. Mar-lo

5.

Alternate: STILL NEEDED.

Team TianLung Feng:

1. Shira Trusea

2. Thomas Maximillian

3.

4.

5.

Alternate: NONE YET.

Team TC:

1. Sabrina Aino (that's me, 'cause basically this is my team)

2. Kayla Dawn (also Rei)

3. J Gensin

4. Plui Gensin

5. Venus Gensin

Alternate: MEH...

And yeah that's pretty much it. Unless I retrieve my old notebook of characters from its watery grave (-sweatdrop-) then it's as good as shot till I get some new. And note to Redangel none of your characters have gotten through, gomen.

And I have been asked a horrible question by Ashley D. It's so horrible I can't even type it. At least not yet. And plus not many people even care, so why am I still typing? Oh well then...let's just move on, shall we?

------------------------

Hotaru blinked her eyes open. How long had she been asleep? She turned on her side to look, since she was laying down. Her King breathed softly beside her, his arm casually slung over her shoulders.

She opened her mouth to scream--how did he get her here! She made no sound, yet continued to be open-mouthed. Then she recalled last night's events. She'd played along. Her part was done. It was time to go.

She carefully slid from beneath the King, setting his arm on a pillow to trick him in his sleep. She crept over to her bureau in the darkness, she didn't dare try a light. With caution she opened each creaky drawer, pulling out her old Reikai Tantei demon-hunter clothes. Silently she slipped into her jeans and pulled her blue sweatshirt over her head. (You can fill in the various...other garments...)

Hotaru looked back at the King. "Goodbye, my sweet," she whispered, mostly to herself in the darkness of the room. She slipped out into the hall, softly closing the door behind her.

Once outside the room, she flew down the hall, her gym shoes barely touching the carpeted floors as she flitted down flight upon flight of stairs. She couldn't stay. Not as long as her King had this kind of power over her.

These thoughts floated through her mind as she leapt out a window, stealing an oar from one of the ferry girls, never to return to the Reikai.

--------------

The King sat up. Hotaru had already left.

It was pretty much his own fault...this he already knew. He'd taken advantage of his beautiful Hotaru-chan, thrown her aside and cast away her value to him.

There were more where she came from.

The King sighed, flicking on a light. Nothing ever seemed to go his way. He'd lost his first love; Keiko, and then his second love; Hotaru. Life never seemed to favor him.

He stood, stretching. He pulled on his clothes, feeling cramped and encased in this tiny building. (It felt tiny to him, no matter how many square acres it took up.) A midnight stroll would do him some good.

Eijiro interrupted his peaceful thoughts as she burst in through the door, gasping for breath. She turned to look at her King; her face flushed brilliant red as she saw him half-naked.

"Gomen..._gomen_!" she muttered, turning around to hide her face with her kimono sleeve. "Um...my King, my liege, there is a Kurama-san here to see you..."

She never finished. Her King cut her off, letting loose a string of swears she'd never heard put into a more vile sentence--she covered her ears before he could finish.

The King finished dressing before running down the stairs and into the main hall where Kurama-san was waiting for him.

_"Ohisashiburi,"_ Kurama-san greeted him, bowing. The King greeted him in the same manner. Kurama-san continued, "You have some nerve--sending us this." he held out the invitation to the tournament, throwing it down at the King's feet.

The King did not stoop to pick it up. "I will not respond to that kind of tolerance," he said coldly, "if you have come here only to trade insults, Kurama, then I suggest you get the hell out of here." He glared death Kurama's way.

Kurama didn't flinch. "I've only come here to ask you on behalf of Keiko-sama where this petty fight of yours is taking place."

"Of course," said the King, retaining his cool. "Keiko-sama. I remember her. Would you like to join us for dinner, Kurama?" he jumped onto a new topic.

"Skip the formalities--I only want the answer to my question."

The King sighed, rolling his eyes. "I have not decided yet. Come, join me for dinner, then I shall tell you."

Kurama didn't look to happy with the prospect of joining the King for dinner, but accepted politely anyway.

The King paused before turning to go into the dining hall, saying, "And your kitsune friend may join us as well."

Kurama whirled around, seeing Alianore's swirled black tail swish behind a pillar. He motioned for her to come out, and she did, ears pinned back and tail drooping, as if ashamed of being caught.

The King shook his head; these people who seemed to think he cared enough to invite them to dinner didn't even realize what pawn they played in the enticing game the King had involved himself so deeply in.

--------------------

Hotaru knocked on the old wooden door of Genkai's temple. There probably wouldn't be anyone even there anymore; even if there was, she doubted they would allow her inside.

Instead, Hiei-san opened the door. He said nothing, but moved aside to let Hotaru in. She entered, it'd been so long since she'd been in any sort of temple.

Hiei looked her over, then motioned for her to follow him. He led her inside the temple and into the main room, where Yukina-chan sat with tear gems in her pale hands and Kazuma Kuwabara hovered over her shoulder like a coat.

Kuwabara looked up for a minute, finally noticing Hotaru's presence. Yukina looked up as well. She smiled, standing up to welcome Hotaru. Kuwabara trailed after her, joining Yukina in a giant bone-crushing hug with Hotaru.

Hiei hung back--not particularly eager to participate in the hug. Hotaru smiled, her old friends had welcomed her back despite the horrible traitor she'd been to them. She pulled Hiei inside the midst of the hug despite his efforts to go unnoticed, forcing him to be hugged by his least favorite person, Kuwabara.

While Hiei and Kuwabara picked a fight with each other, Yukina stood back, looking at Hotaru. She smiled, even though tear gems fell freely from her cheeks. "_Okaeri_, Hotaru."

Hotaru smiled back, tears gathering in her own eyes. "_Okaeri_, Yukina."

-------------------

**A/N:** Yeah OK I realize that was a little sappy, but...not much I can do about that.

Hm...well, I really don't have too much more to say...so...until the next chapter, ja ne!

Translations:

_Ohisashiburi_- a greeting used for someone you haven't seen in a while.

_Okaeri_- welcome home.  
--------

-S-chan


	7. Okashira onna

I do not own YYH. I am frankly tired of NOT owning YYH, since I wish I did...and still don't... 

**A/N:** Well...hm...this is going quite well. Team Ukishima is filled up, except for the alternate fighter (which I doubt we will be needing.) And as soon as I am able to fill up Team Ukishima and another team the King's identity will be revealed, a new contest will begin, and the tournament will start!

Notes:

Magus Black: I am not entirely sure where you got my e-mail from but first off you probably have the wrong one. I have like...five. The blairn1 zoomnet thing doesn't work anymore. Unless you have the serpent one. That one works. But who told you? -confused S-chan- Oh yes and what was that question that Mar-lo wanted to ask Kurama? You never said.

Our progress thus far:

Team Ukishima:  
1. Masked Fighter

2. Alianore

3. Kay

4. Mar-lo

5. Ryu Shoku

Alternate: STILL NEEDED.

Team TianLung Feng:

1. Shira Trusea

2. Thomas Maximillian

3.

4.

5.

Alternate: NONE YET.

Team TC:

1. Sabrina Aino (that's me, 'cause basically this is my team)

2. Kayla Dawn (also Rei)

3. J Gensin

4. Plui Gensin

5. Venus Gensin

Alternate: Ne...

-----------------

The King picked up his chopsticks, looking first at his food, then at Kurama and his unexpected kitsune friend.

Kurama looked down at the food, which resembled a human head. He poked at it to make sure it wasn't alive--not that he wanted it dead, either. He looked up at the King, saying, _"Itadakimasu."_

_"Itadakimasu,"_ the kitsune onna repeated. The King nodded, asking for the onna's name.

"Alianore," she managed, staring with some disgust at her food.

"There's other food, you know." said the King, absently taking a bite of human-resembled-head. Alianore heaved a sigh of relief, pushing away her plate.

Two ferry girls came in, and with them the other foods served; _gyouza, kashiwa-mochi, onigiri,_ _dango, azuki beans, taiyaki,_ _nimono, ramen,_ _sushi,_ rice (I'm not translating rice), and _sake._

The King watched Alianore and Kurama gape at how much food was brought in--a feast had been required for a visit from his old friend. Alianore looked bewildered at what she should eat first. She took a bite of the _kashiwa-mochi,_ then changed her mind and swallowed a _dango._

Kurama, the ever elegant one, took a small bite of _taiyaki _before lifting his eyes to watch the King, who gulped down a glass of _sake._ He watched both him and Alianore eat hurriedly, like they were rushing to get somewhere. Kurama took his time to eat everything the ferry girls had piled in front of him.

Out of nowhere the King clapped his hands together and declared, "I insist you two stay the night. You will stay in the _hanare."_

"Oh--we couldn't--" began Alianore, but Kurama cut her off.

"We'd be delighted," he told the King, shooting Alianore a look across the table. The King nodded and motioned for another bottle of _sake._

-----------------

Botan pressed the buzzer for Kurama's apartment. Nobody was answering. She tried again, getting rather aggravated.

A small middle-school girl tapped her on the shoulder. "E-Excuse me, Miss, are you looking for Minamino-san?" Botan nodded, tilting the rims of her sunglasses to get a look at the girl. "He's not here," the girl continued. "He left a little while ago with Alianore-dono."

Botan arched her eyebrows--Kurama hadn't mentioned going anywhere with their local fox demoness. She shrugged, and headed away from the door and back to the elevator, leaving the smaller girl to wonder what she had wanted with Minamino-san.

It was probably nothing, she told herself. But she couldn't shake the feeling that something more was going on. Ever since the King had sent out the tournament invitation, everyone had been on edge. Especially Keiko-sama.

Once outside the building, she crossed the street without so much as a look at traffic and arrived in front of a marble statue of the founder of this particular city. She scanned the area for any sign of her associates--nothing turned up.

"Greetings," greeted a quiet voice from behind. Botan spun on her heel, instinctively raising a fist to her attacker's face. She relaxed when she realized it was only her newest associate, Ryu Shoku.

Ryu's long black hair fell into her deep blue eyes as she told Botan in her dark, creepy voice, "There are dead people." Botan inched back, suddenly recalling she wasn't so relaxed.

"That's...great, Ryu-chan." she forced a smile. Ryu's eyes drifted up to Botan's and made her shiver.

"Domo arigato, _okashira."_ she said, her face remaining in a still position, expressionless. She pushed her hair out from in front of her face and behind her back, revealing the bleeding heart bitten by a dragon on her black T-shirt. Her wristbands with the skulls and crossbones on them made her equally creepy, and so did her entire black attire.

Tapping wood sounded lightly on the dirt behind her, and Ryu turned in time to see her fellow team mate Mar-lo make a jab at her. She let his friendly punch hit her square in the nose.

"Oh God!" he yelped, looking at Ryu's suddenly bleeding nose. She looked down at it herself without much interest. "I thought you were going to dodge that! You're OK now, though. Yes?"

Ryu nodded, making no effort to stop the flow of blood. She seemed quieter than usual today. Botan and Mar-lo had to get a tissue and stuff it up her nose to get her to do something.

Mar-lo nodded, flipping his dark green ponytail over his shoulder. "Of course you're OK," he said. "I would never hurt a girl. Much less my own teammate."

Botan pursed her lips and nodded curtly. "Please. No more harming of Ryu-chan."

Mar-lo nodded, saluting. "Absolutely, _okashira-onna."_ Botan ignored his mock-formal comment and turned back to Ryu.

"Now," Botan began, "If I may say--"

"Hello!" sang out the familiar voice of Kay, one of the late team members. She grinned, her blue-green hair swinging behind her, blue eyes sparkling. As always she was dressed up in all blue and black--a tradition she seemed to have established without knowing.

"As I was saying," Botan continued, clearing her throat loudly enough to redirect the group's attention to her. "We're going to have to--"

"Ryu-chan!" Kay suddenly exclaimed. "You made it! I thought you said you weren't coming!"

Ryu turned to look at her, blue eyes blinking. "Yes." she said. There was a pause after that--then Ryu turned back to listen to Botan. The eerie silence had sobered Kay's mood a bit, she quieted down and let Botan talk.

Botan opened her mouth to speak, but then Mar-lo interrupted. "Hey look over there. It's the lung-fang groupies." he pointed over to two people looking over at them from across the street.

"TianLung Feng." Ryu corrected, turning her head ever so slightly to see the opposing team. They looked away the minute they made eye contact with Ryu. She sighed softly.

Botan frowned; these...these..._silly demons_ would not let her get a word out edgewise. She sighed, giving up. She would simply go unheard for the time being. She could tell the team later, anyway. When Alianore was around.

"Hey groupies!" Mar-lo shouted across the street. "Whatcha doin' over there?" His old-fashioned yellow tunic hung loosely around his body as he leaned over to yell at their enemy team.

Thomas, the only male member of the team present, turned to look over at Mar-lo. His violent red hair gave him killer looks, and even across the street his hazel eyes seemed to glow. Kay, despite already having pledged her life to capturing and marrying Yoko Kurama, nearly melted in her shoes from how hot he looked.

The other member, a female, was Shira Trusea, the captain. She was screaming something at Thomas, not paying any attention whatsoever to the other team. In her human form she had long brown hair and looked fairly ordinary; but her demon form, which she was not in at the moment, was even more captivating, with her red tipped silver hair and red eyes. She had a real problem with Thomas--no one could ever guess why she put him on her team if she hated him so much.

"Of all the gall," said Mar-lo, shading his eyes from the sun, clicking the toe of his wood shoes together. "Hey! Sir Sings-a-lot! I'm talking to you!"

Shira looked up from her shouting, pulling her hair back in a ponytail. "Hey! You! Betty-go Boom! Shut the hell up!"

Mar-lo looked almost shocked. "Yeah...well...I can't think of a comeback, help me out here, Ryu."

"You smell like the underside of a dinikiji." said Ryu, still expressionless. Mar-lo repeated what she said with enthusiasm.

He turned to Ryu, confused. "What the heck is a Dinikiji?"

Ryu turned back to look at him. "It comes from my homeworld."

Kay and Mar-lo took a step back. Botan shook her head. Ryu-chan came off as creepy and dark, if only because she was half wraith. (**A/N:** I changed that.)

Ryu didn't seem to notice she'd been insulted, and proceeded to take the tissue from her nose. She handed the bloody tissue to Botan, saying, "Here." Botan, too afraid of the wraith to object, nodded and took the disgusting rag from the girl.

-------------

**A/N:** Well. That was long.

Notes:

pices aquarius: Please send some more info on Alianore. Thanks.

Magus Black: Hm...just one question...why Mar-lo's shoes?

Kay(Not Ana): Please elaborate on your character.

Dragonheart 7: More info on Shira, thank you!

And to my reviewers: CAKE FOR EVERYONE! -proceeds to hand out cake-

Translations:

_Itadakimasu-_ thanks for the food.

_Gyouza-_ dumpling

_Kashiwa-Mochi-_ mochi balls filled with azuki bean paste.

_Onigiri-_ rice balls

_Dango-_ dumplings of mochi

_Azuki Beans-_ sweet red beans used in Asian desserts

_Taiyaki-_ fish shaped pancakes filled with azuki bean paste

_Nimono-_ stewed or boiled foods

_Ramen-_ chinese style noodles

_Sushi-_ raw fish (or some dort of food wrap--depends, I guess)

_Sake-_ an alcoholic beverage

_Hanare-_ guest room

_Okashira-_ boss, leader

_Okashira-onna-_ boss lady

All these translations of food are making me hungry. -goes off to scour kitchen for food-

-S-chan


	8. Sake sake

_I do not own YYH. I hope my orthodontist dies._

**A/N:** I just now got back from my orthodontist. O--how I despise, loathe, and hate him. He makes me experience pain--which is not something I deal with well. I hate him...I HATE HIM AND WISH HE'D DIE. -looks around for Kayla Dawn- Where's a frying pan when you need one?

My dad says nobody ever dies from having braces. Well how exactly would HE know, when the retard orthodontist probably buries his dead patients beneath his office? Besides--why do you think they wear gloves, anyway? (-evil glare- to hide the evidence, that's why...they've been getting on our good side ever since they crawled from the bowels of Heck, those orthodontists...BUT I SEE THROUGH THEIR THIN CHARADE!)

On a brighter note, this means I am not going to youth group and that I have time to type and publish lots of stuff. And this means that I have lots of time on my hands. -looks around for something to dump time on- -notices computer- -gladly dumps all time on monitor and immediately zones into the Internet- -spaces out completely- -forgets what we were talking about-

Notes:

Hm...OK people have been asking for me to elaborate on what I want from them.

Let's see...

Kay (not Ana) : Yes by all means elaborate on the six heads. And all six showing up will be unlikely and I am bound to change one teeny little fact to fit the story. Is that OK? Namely how often the six show up.

Dragonheart 7: Why don't you like Magus Black? Is there something wrong? -confused- And also DON'T CURSE ME! -snarls- I AM UN-CURSABLE, AND INSTEAD I SHALL CURSE YOU, SHOULD YOU MAKE THAT FOOLISH MISTAKE! (JK.)

pices Aquarius: Thanks for giving her to me. I like writing about kitsune's...for some odd reason they're my favorite kind of demon. -shrug-

Magus Black: That is a very good point, I mean the shoes...no I have never been kicked with them but I do own a pair...are these Dutch shoes, just asking 'cause I'm curious. And plus--have you ever walked in them? It's like walking in cement blocks. And make sure you don't step on anything that could possibly stick to your shoe--say for instance, a nail. Which I have done. And I see your other point, the question one. Well I will eventually come up with something. And also yes I have -counts email addresses- five addresses.

Our progress thus far:

Team Ukishima:  
1. Masked Fighter

2. Alianore

3. Kay

4. Mar-lo

5. Ryu Shoku

Alternate: STILL NEEDED.

Team TianLung Feng:

1. Shira Trusea

2. Thomas Maximillian

3. Maridona Nightshade

4. Toki Ukiya (for the moment, anyway...she's one of my characters, she's just here to fill up space right now.)

5.

Alternate: NONE YET.

Team TC:

1. Sabrina Aino (you all already know her)

2. Kayla Dawn (also Rei)

3. J Gensin

4. Plui Gensin

5. Venus Gensin

Alternate: Unless there is another request, Rain Reakai.

-----------------------

The King, successfully drinking himself into a state of unconsciousness, ordered Eijiro before he clonked out to show his guests to their rooms. She nodded, catching the King as he collapsed from consuming so much _sake._

Kurama, who hadn't had much _sake,_ was immobilized in the process of dragging a very drunk Alianore across the floor. He frowned before hoisting her over his shoulders and carrying her instead.

Eijiro led the way into the _hanare_ (see last chap for translation). Kurama followed, Alianore singing country songs and quite badly at that while taking a piggy back ride on his back. Kurama heaved a sigh and set the drunken kitsune demoness on the bed provided for her.

"Kurama-kun," she crooned from the bed, her hair falling onto the floor, her head hanging off the edge. "Come sit with me."

"Alia," Kurama relied, "I don't think so."

"Please?" she asked, still holding a bottle of _sake._ She tipped it back to drink from it, only managing to spill sake all over herself. Kurama, heaving another sigh, went and fetched some towels to clean her up. He ordered her into the shower.

She smiled goofily at him and tried to pull him in with her, despite the both of them still being fully clothed. Kurama shoved her off and locked her in the bathroom until she was finished.

When the shower finally stopped, Kurama unlocked the door to let Alia out. She came tumbling out all right--but not wearing anything but a clumsily strung towel around her shoulders.

Kurama tried to look away as he tried to assist Alianore in putting her clothes back on, since she was incapable of doing anything but hiccuping and singing "A pirates life is for me" over and over again, and only those words, too, since she didn't know the rest of the song.

Alianore got the smart idea of trying to wrestle with Kurama as he tried to help her, and succeeded in pulling his shirt off. Eijiro chose this moment to walk in.

The ferry girl dropped the glass she was holding and covered her eyes, slamming the door as she yelled, "Sorry I interrupted!"

Kurama dropped Alianore and opened the door. "Wait--it's not like that!" But Eijiro was already hurrying down the hall, her face buried with embarrassment in her kimono.

Alianore crawled on the floor over to Kurama. "Who the hell is she?" she slurred. "What...did she come..._hic_...in here..._hic_...for?"

Kurama rolled his eyes and picked Alia up off the floor, carrying her back to her own bed. Alia complained the whole way there of not liking heights, and proceeded to vomit over Kurama's shoulder.

After dumping the demoness on her stomach on the bed, Kurama, completely wiped out, started to clean up the mess that his friend had made. During the midst of scrubbing the floor, Alia's cell phone began to chirp.

Kurama picked up the phone. "Hello?"

"WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU TWO!" screamed Botan. Kurama held the phone out at arms length, rubbing his ear.

"Helloooooo, Kurama-sama," drooled the voice of Kay over the phone.

"Hello Kay," he said back. He heard her hit the floor at the sound of his greeting. He placed the phone beside his ear again at the risk of losing his hearing.

"Greetings, okashira-san." came the monotonous voice of Ryu. Obediently she let her other team mates take over the phone to yell at and greet him.

Somehow Mar-lo wound up with the phone. "Hey Yoko!" he screeched into the phone. "What the hell are you doing with Alia? You're not trying to take advantage of her, are you? Well _are_ you, fox-boy!"

"Give me that!" Botan shouted over Mar-lo. There was a loud crash, the phone crackled, and finally clicked off.

Alia lifted her head. "I heard Marbles," she said, mixing up Mar-lo's name. Kurama tossed her the phone, which hit her in the head because she wasn't paying any attention. Her head dropped back down as she fell asleep.

---------------------

"Now look what you've gone and done!" Botan screeched. "You broke my phone!" She whacked Mar-lo over the head. He ducked, and she instead slapped Ryu.

Silence ensued as Ryu turned her head slowly to look at Botan. "You are going to die soon," the young hanyou informed her. Botan gulped as Ryu started walking away, back to where ever she'd been to begin with.

Kay got up from her trance and followed Ryu. "Hey! Ryu-chan! Wait up!"  
Ryu suddenly paused. "Why do you keep following me?" she asked.

Kay smiled, trying to catch her breath. She pushed a strand of hair behind her ear. "Because we're friends, that's why."

Ryu raised an eyebrow. "I don't have friends." she stated matter-of-factly.

Kay cocked her head and bent her knees slightly to come down to Ryu's height. "Come on. I'm your friend. Our whole team is made up of your friends."

"Mere acquaintances."

Kay put her hands on her hips. "Friends," she corrected.

Ryu narrowed her eyes. "Can you even define this term you so loosely use? _Friends?"_

Kay was unfazed. "Someone who is always there for you is your friend."

Ryu's face soured, and she turned, continuing her walk. "Always is the equivalent of almost. Almost and always are terms that should never be used."

Kay stared after Ryu for a moment before following her. "I'm still your friend." she said, persisting. Ryu slowed, then stopped.

"You being my friend does not necessarily make me your friend." she growled. Kay put a hand on her shoulder, but it sank through and came out of Ryu's wrist.

Kay yanked back her hand. "Ryu-chan!" she exclaimed. "I thought Kurama-sama told you not to turn wraith in public!"

Ryu didn't listen. "What I do is my business," she snarled, turning around to face Kay. She opened her mouth wide, revealing huge, pearl white razor fangs, and emitted a sound that was unbearable and high pitched--a loud, screeching, crying wail. Her eyes glowed violently red, threatening to change her to a wraith here in public.

Kay noticed a group of spectators watching them act so strangely. She looked at Ryu, who was threatening to screech again. She attacked Ryu with a hug--sending her back to her demon form. She dragged Ryu back to the team while hugging her, disguising the ghost-like creature beneath her.

"I'm going to kill you," Ryu's muffled voice sounded.

"That's just great, can it wait until we beat the shit out of the King?"

A pause. "Yes."

-------------------------

**A/N:** -sigh- I still don't have nearly enough characters to even hope of starting, so mostly right now this chapter is stalling for time--er, I mean...oh well. Anyway, the next chapter will be the actual fights starting, and yes I still need lots of characters, so feel free. Hm...I really am at a loss for words right now. And if you want to be put on either TianLung Feng or TC please do so ASAP since they are going real quick. The other teams aren't so lucky-- Team Seppuku, Team Hitokiri, Team Ei, and some others I haven't thought up names for yet.

And a note: I still despise my orthadontist. He's _evil,_ I tell you.

-another sigh- Ja for now, until the next chapter!

-S-chan


	9. Wraith

_I do not own YYH. This is getting old._

**A/N:** I have to leave my computer soon...so this will probably take me more than one day to finish. Of course I will end up informing you about this at the end, anyway.

Notes:

Magus Black: I suppose it does seem as if I personally know Mar-lo. In fact, I do have a friend that acts just like him. But also Mar-lo reminds me a lot of my own character Plui Gensin. Even the green hair matches up. Which I find odd.

Kay: Thanks for Ai! I will put her on Team Hitokiri. She can be captain 'cause she's the first to sign up.

And all team stats are the same except for Team Hitokiri, who has a grand total of one member, the captain, Ai. Team Seppuku and Team Ei's captain spots are still up for grabs.

-------------------------

Eijiro shook the King a second time. "Wake up!" she hissed. _"Wake up!"_

The King mumbled something in his sleep and turned over. Sake did not bode well with him the next day.

"Come on-- your stupid tournament's already started!"

This sudden shock sent the King flying out of his bed, still barely even awake. "WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME THIS EARLIER!" he screamed. Eijiro lifted her oar above her head defensively.

"Don't hit me!" she yelped. But her King was already out the door, too busy to hit her. She hurried after him. After setting foot in the hall, she managed to glimpse her King flitting off to the tournament in his super-quick demonic speed.

She went to the window and hopped on her oar, soaring outside in the hopes of getting to the tournament in time to see the first fight.

--------------------

"Welcome ladies and freaks--" screamed an enthusiastic Koto from the center of the ring, "--to this year's tournament of pain and horror, the Tournament of Kings! Sponsored of course by our very own King of the Demon World!" She turned and looked up, directing her gaze at the King, sitting high in the stands above. The crowd roared with anticipation, shouting and screaming for blood and carnage.

"Keep your bloody mouths shut!" screamed the familiar voice of Mar-lo from somewhere in the background. It didn't shut up the crowd, only made them chant louder.

Koto coughed, calling for silence. "Today's first fight will be one I look forward to--a bloody hell of a fight, Team Ukishima versus Team Ei!" she thrust her hand out, waving each team forward into the ring.

Mar-lo was the first one up on stage, his blue eyes blazing, ready for a challenge. He pulled up the rest of his teammates to make them hurry faster, as if the fight would begin any moment without him.

In a matter of minutes the entire Ukishima team was assembled: Mar-lo, Kay, Ryu, Alianore, and the Masked Fighter. The Masked Fighter was a new addition to the team-- his identity had been kept secret from even the rest of Team Ukishima.

Team Ei stood in a line before them, each fighter shrouded with a black cloak. Only one figure was visible, and only her head was. She came up to Mar-lo and Kay's shoulders, and her floor length light violet hair fell in tresses around her. She had an ashy grey complexion, making her seem as if she were a weapon in herself. Piercing black eyes looked out from beneath her violet bangs, and she eyed the other team with contempt and disregard.

"I am Lady Shei," she started, her voice grating like sandpaper, "I am the owner of Team Ei. These are my personal fighters and assassins from my land, and I hope that you will present a challenge to them. They are in need of discipline that I cannot give them." With that said, she turned on her heel and dropped off of the edge of the arena.

"Well if she ain't one picky woman," muttered Mar-lo. He looked over at the other team. "Which one of you shit-heads in the cloaks wants to have a go at us first?"

One of the smaller members of the team stepped up, throwing off her cloak. Her body was tiny and skinny, as if she were made of nothing but bones. Black hair stuck out at various lengths on her head, as if she's had the worst haircut possible. It was impossible to read her blank, grey eyes, and no facial expression seemed to form on her chalk-white face.

Alianore's fingers brushed one of her katana's-- this fighter didn't seem to belong in the air. Not even this time. She was out of place, out of sight, and yet home where she stood and up in your face. Vividly there.

Kay and Mar-lo stepped forward at the same time, both ready to take on this challenge. But instead Ryu shoved past them both, shouldering her way to the wretched mess they called a fighter.

"Ryu-chan," greeted the opposing fighter. Ryu did not greet as warmly as her opponent had hoped for.

"I have nothing to say to you, Remei," snarled Ryu, letting her black aura seep out from beneath her black shoes. Remei's face didn't flinch as Ryu's misty black aura surrounded her. Her expression didn't change at all.

"I see you've grown since you left Toki to come and look for you," Remei smiled. Her smile seemed unnatural on her tight-lipped face. "Leaving the wraiths. What a comedy."

"I didn't leave," Ryu gritted her teeth against the insult.

Koto interrupted. "While I hate to break up this touching reunion, it's time to begin the fight!" she looked to make sure both fighters were at the ready. "And--_begin!"_

"I'm going to make sure that you go back to Toki with your tail between your legs," said Remei with an assurance in her voice. Her own blue aura began to seep out, finally revealing the bag of skin she was to be a very powerful foe indeed.

"Highly unlikely," Ryu said, her mouth opening wide to reveal her inch-long wraith teeth. She emitted the shriek she'd made hours earlier when with her teammates, an ear-splitting cry.

Remei echoed her cry, yellowed wraith fangs sprouting from her elongated mouth. The two screeched at each other for a minute before lunging for the attack.

Boney fingers grew stretchy, four joints taking the place of the original three of each finger. The two seemed to fly forward as if pushed by some unknown force, clashing against each other.

Ryu's aura crackled with Remei's as the two wraith's battled in a fight of mental stability, both with fingers outstretched, clawing at each other, yet not quite touching. The aura's held the two off, the energy vibrating the very floors.

"Wow, people!" yelled Koto, delighted. "I've never seen such a pretty and blood-hungry light show in my life! It looks like these two competitors won't be giving up any time soon!"

Ryu screamed, her own aura barely able to hold up and support her. She flew back, her spine smashing into the brick walls of the stands. Remei tripped forward, the force of pushing against Ryu knocking her off balance.

"Start the count!" Koto said eagerly, running over to see the damage to Ryu. "One! Two! Three--!"

"There's no need." the Masked Fighter interrupted, placing his hand on Koto's shoulder, directing her back toward the center ring. There stood Ryu, panting and struggling to stand, but still standing.

"Ladies and gentlemen, Ryu is still up and about!" she shouted. Half the demons in the stands exploded in cheers and applause. The other half booed and started cheering on Remei.

Ryu put a hand to the torn wound in her abdomen. "I'm not going back with Toki," she growled, "I won't go back. _I won't!"_ She lunged at Remei, her long wraith fingers sinking deep in Remei's chest. Remei struggled for a moment-- then fell limp in Ryu's arms.

Ryu dumped down her opponent on the floor and walked back to her team. As she walked back, she heard the dying Remei utter to her, "A shadow can never return to the light it was once formed from. You will...go back to Toki..."

Ryu tried her best to look as if she ignored Remei, even though her words pierced her demonic heart. Remei's body burst into green-black flames, burning, smoldering, smoking. The scent of charred flesh reached the two teams, disgust appearing on all visible faces.

"W-What just happened here!" Koto cried. "Let's play back the tape!"

A bright image flickered onto a grey screen above the stands. In slow motion, the entire Makai audience recoiled as they watched Ryu's fingers plunge through Remei's stomach and through her back, a beating, fleshy heart trapped in her boney hands.

The tape came to a stop. Ryu went and dropped the still living heart in her now-human hands at the Masked Fighters feet. "Here, okashira." she said to him, still clutching her wounded stomach. He looked at the heart, bloody and beating.

"That was unnecessary," he told Ryu, who shrugged in return.

Koto looked back and forth at both teams, who were conversing with the members beside them. "OK, people, time to start the next fight! Send up your next fighters!"

Team Ei wasted no time in sending their tallest member forward. Team Ukishima waited until he dropped his cloak to reveal his true identity.

The crowd inhaled sharply as Team Ei's next fighter discarded his cloak casually, his green hair spilling out.

Koto seemed at a loss for words. "Um--ah--" she stuttered, as she watched him walk over to Team Ukishima.

"Kay," he greeted, smiling.

"Itsuki," she greeted just as coldly.

-----------------------------

A/N: This thing took me like three days to finish. And it's not even very long. It's because drama club is taking up so much of my time. It's very time-consuming. Anyway, that's beside the point.

I still need characters, and Team Ei's spots are all up for grabs. And a new contest is taking place-- whoever can guess who he/she is can fight against (or have anything you want to do with) the King! You don't have to-- I just want to see if anybody can guess who they are as the story progresses. -grin-

Oh yes-- and just because it says _he_ does not necessarily mean that the Masked Fighter is a man. It is not Genkai.

-S-chan


	10. Yaminate

_I do not own YYH. Such a bland thought sickens me to the point where I wish I could spew cheese out my nose._

**A/N:** I luuuurve my reviewers! -hugs everyone-

Notes:

Kay: Thank you sooooo much for all those characters. I lurve you and Ryu! -hugs- Just kidding I'm odd but I'm not that odd. In a platonic way. And plus note to everyone: all characters are excepted, even when the story _ENDS._ Because there is going to be a sequel fic. So as many characters as I can get I appreciate.

Let us see...team stats have pretty much stayed unchanged, with a couple of new members for a new team--

Team Kaleo:

1. Chi Koen Koe

2. Kurai Momoko

3. Kage Kancho

4. Hotaru Ikuhara

5. (up for grabs...)

And yeah that's pretty much it right now.

-------------------------

The crowd murmured and whispered rumors as they watched Itsuki assist Kay into the ring. The Yaminate and Kay both walked toward the middle of the ring, then faced each other for the fight that would be one not to miss.

_"Begin!"_ Koto shouted the OK.

"I'm not going easy on you, Kay," Itsuki answered before she had a chance to say anything. She spit at him, her saliva landing on his shoe. He chuckled, his six independent hands grabbing her from behind.

"Let go of me!" she yelped, kicking at the air to no avail. Itsuki glided up to her, his face calm and his eyes laughing.

"Well well," he mused, tilting her chin up to look him in the eye. "Look how far the only daughter of the first spirit detective has fallen."

"S-Shut up!" she snarled, a stutter entering her voice. So Itsuki knew who her parents were. The Yaminate giggled like a small child, drunken with power over her.

"You're angry," he stated, "you want to kill me. Oh, Kay don't glare-- it's not becoming of you."

Kay wet her lips, reaching back to see if she could possibly pull out Aoi, Akuma, or Yuki-- three of the six different personalities living in her head.

_'It's not becoming of you,'_ Akuma and Yuki mimicked, laughing hysterically, but refusing to come out. Kay was on her own for this one.

Laizi looked at Kay sympathetically. _'I don't believe I'd be much help in a fight like this,'_ she said. Laizi was the most gentle of her personalities and couldn't win a fight if she died trying.

Aoi, her worst personality, said nothing.

Kay made sure they all knew she was pissed off at them before reconnecting with reality and rejoining Itsuki, who mocked her relentlessly.

"You baka," Itsuki whispered, "How could you let your guard down? Hm? How could you let me in so easily, when I know that the different demon lines in you have taught you differently?" he brushed his fingers through her hair, an action that made Kay's skin crawl. He continued to play with her long, beautiful blue hair as his six arms squeezed oxygen from her lungs.

She choked, feeling the blood starting to come rushing up her throat. She spit out as much blood as she could in a spray of red in Itsuki's face.

The surprised Yaminate fell back, his arms loosening their hold on Kay for only a split second. But that was all the time she needed for her to slam her heel into Itsuki's abdomen, striking the same place where Remei had struck her friend Ryu. He clutched at his stomach-- but was still able to stand without much difficulty.

Kay was beginning to be frustrated. Yaminate's didn't lose to anyone-- she'd never met a single one that had. Ever. In a hundred years she had not met anyone who had fought with a Yaminate and came back in one piece.

_I'll be the first, then,_ she thought, setting her mind. Nothing would make her lose this fight.

As soon as Itsuki was back on his feet she launched an attack; sending bright blue spirit energy flying toward him in a jump kick from her heel. The Yaminate was hit again, but didn't stay down. Seconds after being down, he would stand back up.

Kay repeated this tactic three times, sending rapid fire rolling dangerously at Itsuki. This time he blocked it with his free arms, completely absorbing the energy.

"The fight's heating up!" Koto yelled, the glow of anguish between fighters comforting her. "Things are getting pretty intense here!"

"She's being foolish," the Masked Fighter said suddenly. "She's wasting her energy."

"What do you mean?" asked Alianore, looking over to her captain. Mar-lo answered with his own questioning look at the anonymous fighter.

"She's concentrating on how to hit _him,_ when she should be concentrating on breaking the bond between them. As long as she holds onto her ties with Itsuki, she will never be able to defeat him." he answered them.

Alianore looked at the screen to get a closer look as Kay took a blow to the mouth. "So she's basically losing."

The Masked Fighter nodded grimly. "I'm afraid so."

"Is there any chance of Kay-chan winning?" asked Botan worriedly.

"Of course there is," said Ryu from the corner, nursing her wounds. "But it's slight."

"She might lose," said Mar-lo, his ever happy face turning to a frown. "Or even worse-- she might die."

-----------------

The King watched from up in his own private room the fight between Itsuki and Kay. He looked down from a box, the clear screen blocking out the nuisance noises of the crowd. An earpiece sat on his ear as Koto relayed the fight to him, some of Kay and Itsuki's conversation floating in and out.

The King, having dealt with Itsuki before, knew him to be a very difficult and complex man. When Sensui had died, Itsuki had taken him away; so what business did he have in returning? Did he have unfinished matters to take care of?

Highly unlikely, the King thought. Nothing was ever that simple. If Itsuki had returned, then there was a good reason behind it.

This Kay put up a tough fight. She was strong, he'd give her that: but her thick head was preventing her from thinking the situation through. If she would focus instead of going on blind anger, she could have won with ease.

"Doesn't she remind you of someone?" asked Hiei from the back of the box.

For a long while the King sat and said nothing. Then he replied, "I don't make a habit of reliving the past. What's done is done, what's past is past."

Hiei snorted and walked up to stand beside the chair where the King had set his royal butt.

"How long have you been standing there?" the King asked him after another awkward silence. Hiei looked down at the King in scorn; if he hadn't sensed his presence, then he didn't deserve to know. Some King he had turned out to be.

"Do you know who he is?" Hiei shifted the subject, nodding toward the Masked Fighter.

The King's eyes shifted to him. "No, I do not. At first I believed it might be Genkai again; but that was unlikely and impossible. No, no, I do not."

Hiei smirked. "Then I'm one step ahead of you, Detective,"

The King nodded. "You can have your moment."

Hiei's face soured, and he left the box in the blink of an eye. The King turned back to the fight, Kay even more injured than before. Her long sleeve was missing one sleeve, and her face had taken quite a beating. Itsuki was taunting her, playing with her.

The King steeled his gaze as he watched Kay get kicked while she was down: Itsuki was going to win at this rate.

----------------

Kay winced as Itsuki gave her another bone-jarring kick to the ribs. She stumbled, not yet ready to go down.

"Are you _stupid?"_ Itsuki asked in disbelief. "Why don't you strike back?"

"She's biding her time," the Masked Fighter muttered to his curious teammates. "So she does know what she's doing."

Itsuki struck her cheekbone out of frustration. It wasn't like him to lose his calm.

"My mother took you in," Kay said, struggling to keep her vision from going black. Red dots danced brilliantly before her eyes. "She fed you. She housed you. To think that this is the creature my mother took pity on."

Itsuki was getting angry, his cool shield dropping fast.

"She was like your mother--" Kat finished, gritting her teeth, _"--because she was your mother!"_ with this shocking statement revealed, she shoved Itsuki out of the ring, dazed.

"One!" Koto began. "Two! Three! Four! Five! Six! Seven!"

Itsuki ran back for the ring._ "Eight! Nine!"_

He jumped up-- but never made it before ten.

Kay fired another spirit energy blast, knocking him back out of the ring for the remaining last number.

"Ten! Kay is the winner!" Koto held up the fatigued Kay's hand.

"Yay for me," she muttered, limping back to her teammates.

"You did it!" Mar-lo and Alianore congratulated her as she got back. She collapsed next to Ryu, and looked over at her friend.

"Hi," said Kay. Ryu snorted.

"Excellent work, Kay-san," approved the Masked Fighter. Kay smiled, too tired to say anything.

Ryu grumbled, but handed Kay a Band-Aid. "Here. That's all you get."

Kay looked down at the gaping wounds on her ribs, and the huge gashes on her face. She took the Band-Aid and wrapper it around her index finger. It was a start.

------------------

**A/N:** Ha! That was a fun, yet tiresome chapter to write. I didn't really know how to get Kay to win! Plus I had to go and look up the fact that Itsuki was a Yaminate. I kept thinking it was Yanagawa for some reason. -shrug-

Well...I have a question to ask of all the people who sent me characters and to any I may get in the future: would anyone object to me adding a little fling of romance between the OC's? I know it's a lot to ask-- and it wouldn't be a lot, just enough to put some comedy in here. Nothing serious.

I think that's it.

-S-chan


	11. Touya the Ice Master

_I do not own YYH. I think I've run out of comments about this._

**A/N:** I luuuurve my reviewers! -hugs everyone-

Notes:

Renee half-wolf: Though I really do appreciate the character, you didn't include a description, so I am going to make it up for you if I am to use her, unless you tell me what she looks like before Team Kaleo's turn. -

Dragonheart 7: -sniff- Well I may not be uncursable, but I am invulnerable and curses do not work on me. Besides-- I am uncursable because I am the authoress and whatever I say goes. (JK. I'm being silly.)

pices Aquarius: It is a seeeeecret. Shhhhhh. Don't tell anyone. -shifty eyes- JK. Really you will have to read the story and find out. Though Kurama has spent the entire story with her so far, wouldn't that imply something...?

And about the little flingy romance between the OC's-- I am not going to put you with anyone you do not like, don't worry. And it's nothing serious-- unless someone wants it to be...Yeah OK it will probably be when they are drunk, anyway. Or overly hyper.

And I am warning people now: I do not do shounen-ai. That is something that I will not write. I am not being cruel here-- I will write little hints if someone REALLY wants it, but I don't do explicit, or even close to implying anything writing. Plus my friend Hillary has scarred me for life with her shounen-ai stories. I've seen pictures. -shudders-

Team Kaleo:

1. Chi Koen Koe

2. Kurai Momoko

3. Kage Kancho

4. Hotaru Ikuhara

5. Renee

Team Hitokiri: now this team really needs some members.

1. Ai Satsugikitsune

2. nada

3. N/A

4. absent

5. currently not present.

Team Reform:

1. Kurama

2. Hiei

3. Kuwabara

4. Yukina _(SHOCK!)_

5. OPEN! No one's here yet.

Team Ei:

1. Remei

2. Itsuki

3. (read and find out)

4. zip

5. zero

Team Fugishima:

1. Akira Fugishima

2. nothing

3. ...

4. again, ...

5. even more ...

-------------------------

Shei glared over at her fighters. They were losing horribly. She wanted to teach them discipline, and they were failing miserably to understand the concept. They couldn't even lose with some honor.

She watched the miserable group called a team that was on the opposing side of the ring. How dare they try and strike her personal fighters? _How dare they?_

One of her fighters came and approached her carefully. "Lady Shei, I think I should be the one to go next." Shei looked at her fighter. She shrugged, dismissing him entirely. He took this as approval and walked to the center ring.

Koto and Team Ei's fighter waited for Team Ukishima to send up their next fighter. The Masked Fighter went into the ring, taking his turn against the formidable, weak Ei.

Removal of the cloak from Team Ei's fighter revealed him as Touya, the Ice Master. From somewhere in the stands the voice of Shira screamed, "I LURVE YOU, TOUYA!"

"SHUT UP!" Mar-lo shouted back.

"YOU SHUT UP, FAGGOT!" she shouted. She turned back to Touya, turning on her womanly charm. "Oh but a sweet name like Touya, his fists made of ice, could steal away my heart so and make it...ice..." her face became confused as she realized that she wasn't very good at creating poetry.

Mar-lo folded his arms, grumbling. A very interesting sight had prevented him from answering to something so simple to reply to-- the sudden appearance of the Kuwabara family. He watched Shizuru Kuwabara make herself at home among the flesh-eating demons in the stands. He felt his face turn red as he turned away, her gaze landing on him.

The Masked Fighter showed neither Shira nor Mar-lo's enthusiasm. He squared off with Touya, ready to pounce.

Koto shouted the OK for the third time in an hour, and the fight commenced.

Touya squinted at the Masked Fighter. "I already know who you are," he said, his squint becoming a smug smirk, "and just because you're a _woman_ doesn't mean I'll go easy on you."

The Masked Fighter looked surprised for a moment, and in that moment the crowd roared and screamed violently.

Even Koto looked startled. "It appears we have another situation just like the Dark Tournament-- another woman is revealed as the Masked Fighter! But who is it this time! Is it Master Genkai again? Or possibly some erotic fan playing dress up? Even this intelligent announcer doesn't know what we're in for next!"

With irritation the Masked Fighter glared at Koto. She turned her gaze back to Touya. "You are correct, Ice Master," she admitted, "I am not going to deny that. I am a woman. However, I hate to disappoint you, but Genkai will not be participating this tournament; or any tournament at all."

Touya mirrored her glare. "Let's see if you can live up to your title, Miss," he said, a pointed ice blade wrapping around his arm.

"I intend to," she sniffed, taking an attack stance. Touya was the first to make an attack. He struck forward with his ice blade, missing the not-so-mysterious any longer Masked Fighter by an inch. She swiped at him with her leg, kneeing him in the stomach.

Touya rose up quickly, taking his blade and knocking the Masked Fighter's feet out from underneath her. While she was down he pointed the tip of his blade at her throat.

"Do you concede?" he inquired. "You have lost. Give up, and I will spare you."

The Masked Fighter's brown eyes glared down with a vengeance at Touya's weapon. "Never," she growled, pointing at him. Blue spirit energy gathered at the tip of her index finger.

"What the--!" Touya yelled, jumping back. He'd seen this technique before. But only one person had ever used it, and that was long-gone Yusuke Urameshi!

"Like it?" she asked, taking aim. "It's a technique I learned. I call it _Spirit Gun."_

She smiled mockingly, sending the spirit gun flying at a miraculous speed toward Touya. He was hit; but not down. He stood back up.

"It's going to take..." he huffed, "...more than a little light to stop me this time."

The Masked Fighter said nothing. Instead, she turned to the King. She pointed at him in his box with her index finger. _"Bang,"_ she murmured.

"It appears as if...they've stopped fighting," Koto announced, confused. "More bloodshed, people! Where'd the bloodlust? The horror? The bone-breaking?"

The crowd echoed her questions, a chant for the death of one fighter surfacing above the sea of colorful voices and vocabularies.

Ryu stared down the crowd, silence suddenly washing over a section of the demons. "She scares me," a horned demon whispered to another. Ryu's gaze was directed suddenly and violently at him, zeroing in. He froze-- and then crumbled to ashes in his seat. Some of the demons and apparitions nearby got up and ran away in cowardice.

A tap on the shoulder forced Ryu around. Hiei-san stood behind her. "A brave bunch they are," he smirked. She nodded, her gaze melting into one of admiration.

"Hi Hiei-kuuuuun!" called Maridonna, one of Shira Trusea's teammates from beside her. Shira forced her to sit back down and shut up. Maridonna still waved her hand back and forth at him, anyway, in an attempt to catch his attention.

"Um...Hiei-sama..." Ryu began nervously, pulling at her hair. Hiei pointed back to the arena.

"Your Masked Fighter just lost," he said, calling her attention to the fight. It was true-- the Masked Fighter lay outside the ring, being assisted up by Alianore and Botan, who were both trying their best to heal some of her injuries.

Ryu's gaze darkened. "How dare she lose," she hissed, "now we have to keep fighting."

Hiei shrugged. "What was it that you were going to ask me?"

Ryu turned to look at Hiei, and nearly dissolved where she stood in the deep, intense look of his beautiful crimson eyes. Her mouth clammed up, and she floated back over to Kay, her palms sweaty and her heart racing. Hiei-sama was the most beautiful creature she'd ever seen.

Reality snapped back as the Masked Fighter glared at her. "You could spend a little less time flirting, and a little more time helping your injured teammates."

"I can't heal." she protested.

"So then assist the ones who can," she replied icily. "Go fetch Yukina-san."

Ryu pursed her lips, but turned around and obeyed, muttering, "Yes, _okashira." _her last word was strained.

---------------------

**A/N:** Ah...I didn't really find that chapter too interesting. But as soon as we move on from team Ei, the fights take a break; and a little party is thrown for all the participants! This is where most people will be able to finally guess who the King is.

-S-chan says: I'm updating every few days now.-


	12. Bash

_I do not own YYH. I'm running out of funny comments._

**A/N:** Somewhere I heard that we are no longer allowed to reply to reviewers, but I have yet to actually _SEE_ this rule. I can't find it-- someone point it out to me please.

Yay--today we have hit sixty reviews, an all new-record for me! This calls for a new chapter!

Team Kaleo: FULL

1. Chi Koen Koe

2. Kurai Momoko

3. Kage Kancho

4. Hotaru Ikuhara

5. Renee

Team Hitokiri: now this team really needs some members.

1. Ai Satsugikitsune

2. nada

3. N/A

4. absent

5. currently not present.

Team Reform:

1. Kurama

2. Hiei

3. Kuwabara

4. Yukina (SHOCK!)

5. OPEN! No one's here yet.

Team Ei:

1. Remei

2. Itsuki

3. (read and find out)

4. zip

5. zero

Team Fugishima:

1. Akira Fugishima

2. nothing

3. ...

4. again, ...

5. even more ...

-------------------------

"Team Ei takes the win!" shouted Koto, bringing her hand down on the last fight. "A face-off between the two teams shall commence next! The fights are down, two wins for the ever-popular Ukishima, and one for the death-loving Team Ei! Teams, please send forth your last two fighters!"

Mar-lo and Alia's faces froze in a shocked expression. "I don't remember ever reading this in the rulebook," Alianore said slowly, her fingers drifting for her katanas.

"That's because it's not," grinned Koto from the ring. "But what the judges say goes, and this is what's going!"

With some grumbling the remaining fighters from Ukishima and Ei took their places in the ring. Koto gave the OK, and the fight began.

"How'd I wind up with _her_?" Mar-lo growled to himself. Alianore overheard him, her kitsune ears pricking up. She kicked him in the shin before unsheathing her first and shorter of the two katanas.

While Mar-lo cursed foully at Alia, she began her sudden attack on the opposing team. Lunging with her sword, she caught the first off guard with a jab of her elbow to the throat. The fighter flew back, her cloak vanishing over the edge of the ring as she skid across the floor.

The unmasked fighter wiped a trickle of blood from her mouth and spit over the edge. She stood, revealing her as another wraith. She looked possibly as if she were clones of the others they'd seen: skinny, bony, pale, black hair and dark eyes. Except this one was a little different. Her aura was lighter than Ryu's, and Ryu wasn't even a full-fledged wraith.

This new wraith-girl stood up, brushing herself off. She was considerably shorter than Alianore, and defiantly thinner. She wasn't a bag of bones like Remei, but wasn't exactly what you would call normal, either. Long white streaks fell from the back of her hair, and made up the entirety of the ponytail slung over her shoulder.

_"Baka,"_ the wraith snarled, looking around for her cloak. "Now you've gone an' ma-d me loos ma coat."

Alia sucked on her bottom lip to keep from laughing at the wraith accent. Most wraiths and demons from different parts of Maikai could disguise their nations accent, but this younger wraith was having a hard time, fumbling over the English words.

"You go' a pro'lem or some-thin?" the younger wraith hissed, her feet gliding over the panels of the floor of the ring. She got up in Alianore's face.

With a snicker Alia knocked the wraith back with the butt of her other sword, barely twitching as much as her thumb. The wraith fell, tumbling clumsily back on her butt.

"Course you," the wraith mumbled, pulling herself back to her feet. She swung a fist at Alia, and missed the shot by a mile. Alianore ducked under her punch and jabbed the sheath back into the sword, whacking the girl hard with the side in the ribs.

While Alianore knocked the shit out of the younger demoness, Mar-lo was having bigger problems.

The demon Mar-lo had taken on was twice as big as he was, and steel claws protruded from shining steel gloves. Mar-lo had been just barely avoiding being hit, and already a few strands of hair and pieces of cloth were missing from his attire.

The demon swiped again with his large claws, missing Mar-lo's arm by a fraction of an inch. The wary Mar-lo hopped around in his wooden shoes, making too much noise as he went, until he got tired of the noise and stood still. Then he waited for the next attack.

"Why are you standing still, you fool?" the demon shrieked. "I shall shred you to ribbons with my mighty steel-claws!"

"How original," Mar-lo muttered, taking an offensive stance, waiting for the demon's next move.

The demon yelled out, running at full speed for the unarmed fighter he opposed. He lifted his arm, and swung hard at his enemy.

But by the time he'd turned around, Mar-lo was already gone.

The demon growled deeply in his throat as he searched for Mar-lo as his demoness companion had searched for her cloak, still wary of the strike.

A loud _THUNK_ commenced as a wooden shoe made contact with the butt of the searching demon. He howled out in a cry of pain as Mar-lo kicked him over and over again with the wooden shoes, beating his face bloody and bruised.

Finally the steel-clawed demon conceded the fight.

"AHAHA-- I TOTALLY KICKED YOUR ASS!" Mar-lo cackled, laughing hysterically. He looked over at Alia, who was still having her fun taunting the little wraith-girl.

The wraith sat on the ground, gripping a badly bruised elbow and holding her free hand to a welt on her forehead. She kicked out at Alianore with one foot. Alia caught the kick aimed for her, twisted the wraith's foot, and flung her out of the ring.

The little wraith groaned as she slid down the wall of the arena.

Koto, rather shocked, gave the fight to Team Ukishima without much protest.

Mar-lo and Alianore went back to their team, Mar-lo complaining about how he would have to change to look good for the tournament bash they'd been invited to. All participating teams had been invited, and there had been a wild rumor going around that the demon King himself would be there to walk among the fighters.

The fights ended for the day, and each team was allowed a half-hour off before the bash began, and then all were to be present.

Alianore and the Masked Fighter walked back with Botan, grim looks on their faces, discussing a grim topic.

Mar-lo had a better time walking back with Kay and Ryu, cracking jokes all the way there. He and Kay found it especially funny that Ryu didn't get any of their jokes at all.

-----------------------

After each team had presented themselves at the entrance to the bash, each member was allowed inside. Many of the teams split up to mingle with others, promises made to meet later with their teammates again.

Mar-lo was especially enjoying himself. "I've got a spot of tea," he said to a human girl looking for a non-alcoholic beverage. She edged away from the already-drunken Mar-lo, who was obviously not holding tea.

Eventually Mar-lo found himself sitting next to a man who looked just like him. "We must be twins," they both decided, both drunk. The other introduced himself as Plui Gensin, and of course Mar-lo as Mar-lo.

Plui looked over at a redhead girl in the crowd who was dancing with a black-haired man. "See that girl? That's my girl."

Mar-lo nodded, taking another gulp of sake. "So who's the dude she's dancing with?"

"Some fool who thinks he's her fiancee."

The red-haired girl kissed the "dude."

"I think he is." said Mar-lo. He looked over at Plui, who he was sure he would find out later was really his reflection.

"Well then what the hell is he doing here?" Plui demanded, and walked off to go steal away the redhead.

Away from the two drunkards, Alianore and Kay were enjoying themselves without getting too drunk. The two were busy chatting with a raven-haired demon who sat in between the two of them.

"So what's your name?" Kay prompted for the fourth time. The raven-haired demon took a drink to avoid her question.

He changed the subject. "What brings you fine ladies down into the bowels of the demon world?"

"The King," they answered simultaneously. "He invited us," Kay told him.

"The King invited everyone," he reminded them. "But I suppose he found you to be quite the opponents, to bring you down here."

Alianore giggled despite herself, then mentally slapped herself for flirting when she was already after Shuichii.

Both girls with Kurama suddenly on their minds turned to see him across the room and watching with narrowed eyes. Apparently he had something of a not quite friendly relationship with this raven-haired demon.

Kay focused back on her new friend. "So what sort of demon are you? I can't read your aura all too well."

The demon shrugged. "Oh...you know. The general type."

Alia exchanged a look with the suddenly curious Kay. "What sort is that? I mean, what part of Makai are you from?"

"Around." he answered, swishing around what was left of his beverage in the glass. "Sort of drifting along."

"A rurouni?" Kay's eyebrows shot up.

The demon shook his head. "Not really."

"Then what?" Alia asked impatiently. "Who are you?"

"I already told you," he said. "I'm not from around."

"But what's your name?" Kay pressed.

He shrugged. "Unimportant."

Both girls were getting tired of waiting for answers. "Look," said Alianore, "if you're going to keep leading us on, we're leaving. Come on, Kay-- let's see if that rumor about the King's true."

"What rumor?" the demon asked sharply.

"The one that the King's gonna be here, in the crowd!" said Kay excitedly. "How could you not have known?"

Alianore shrugged, and tugged Kay away from the demon.

"You won't find him," the demon chuckled.

"And why not?" Kay demanded hotly. "Why ever not?"

"There's no point in looking for him," the demon continued. "Why look for what's sitting right in front of you?"

Alianore's hands froze in mid-air. "You-- King--_WHAT?"_

Kay fainted dead away.

The demon smiled. "Of course," he laughed, "how can you not recognize me, your own King?"

------------------------

**A/N:** I liked this chapter. It was fun to type. And anyway, I know I am probably leaving some stuff on cliff hangers, but then as soon as my school work lets me off, I will be on my computer, typing away. And then you won't have to wait.

And the party continues in the next chapter. And a note: Shira's owner, gomen if I've bee rude. Plus I discovered that one of my old tournaments that was deleted was one that accepted characters, and it turns out Shira Trusea had been sent in to be the Team Bishojo captain! -waves arm- HI SHIRA!

Hm...I think that's it.

-S-chan-


	13. Team Hitokiri

_I do not own YYH. This comes as no surprise to anyone by now._

**A/N:** OH MY GOSH, I HAVE SO MANY REVIEWS! -keels over and dies from shock-

Chibi-Sabrina-chan: -magically POOFS- I will take over, then! For I am the new muse of Sabrina-san!

-coughs- OK, as of my older form is hyperventilating right now, I am taking her spot for the moment. Right now is the bash, where the King has finally made his entrance into the story (and introduced himself)! In this chapter-- the King's name will finally be revealed!

**Team Kaleo:** FULL

1. Chi Koen Koe

2. Kurai Momoko

3. Kage Kancho

4. Hotaru Ikuhara

5. Renee

**Team Hitokiri:** full.

1. Ai Satsugikitsune

2. Allie

3. Ender

4. Z Kaitah

5. Ohime Yakusoku

**Team Reform:**

1. Kurama

2. Hiei

3. Kuwabara

4. Yukina (SHOCK!)

5. OPEN! Still nobody. Send in the characters; though they won't be appearing for a while, just look at the team stats to see if you got the job every chapter or so.

**Team Fugishima:**

1. Akira Fugishima

2. LanLan

3. ...

4. ...

5. ...

**Team TianLung Feng:**  
1. Shira Trusea

2. Thomas Maximillian

3. Maridona Nightshade

4. Toki Ukiya

5.

-------------------------

Alianore stared in shock at the King, whom she had never seen personally her entire life, and yet had been brought up to dislike him immensely. This scrawny, raven-haired boy was surely not the King of Demons, was he?

"I'm Yusuke," he responded coolly, not even fazed in the slightest by Alia or Kay's reactions. "You're Alianore, yes? I believe we've already met."

Alianore nodded slowly; she remembered going to have dinner at the King's house in Reikai-- only she couldn't recall anything about that night. Too much sake had caused her a case of memory loss that night.

The King shrugged, tilting the glass in his hand. He let the last drop of sake fall into his mouth, then stood. "I hope you make it to the finals," he said to Alianore, his tone dismissive, "and tell Botan I said hello." Finished speaking, he turned and melted amongst the crowd.

Alia stared after him, motionless. This had been the King of Demons, this raven-haired Yusuke. Something clicked into place in the back of her mind. Black dots swirled before her eyes. She stumbled-- did she stumble? She must have, because the floor was rushing up to greet her, the black tiles of the bar floor connecting with her face.

"Alia?" she heard someone call. "Alia!"

"Shut up," she groaned, the sound of their voice pounding on her head, "you're giving me a headache."

"Yukina-san!" shouted another voice that sounded suspiciously like Mar-lo's. Alianore wished more than anything at the moment she could have kicked his face in to get him to go away, but her legs felt like stone weights and she could no longer lift them off the floor.

The voices stopped abruptly. The music of the bar stopped playing. And there was nothing but blackness.

------------------

Alianore opened her eyes sometime later to find her head slumped over on someone's shoulder. She sat up abruptly, raking her claws up against the face of the nearest person.

Long blue hair whipped in her face as the head of the person she had hit spun around in shock. Someone grabbed her by the shoulders and twisted her head around to face them.

A tanned girl with emerald-green eyes glared in her face. Her fingers dug into Alia's shoulders, causing her to wince. The girl's eyes were aflame with anger. "Don't you ever, _ever_ hit any of my teammates again, do you hear me, bitch!"

"Calm down, Allie," came another blue-haired demon from behind. He rested his hand on Allie's shoulder, causing Allie to release Alianore.

Allie growled, tossing her long golden hair behind her. "Yeah...whatever." The blue-haired demon smirked, and extended his hand to Alianore.

"I'm Ender," he introduced. "This is Allie," Allie growled again, "and the guy you just knocked the shit out of was Z."

Alianore turned, bewildered, not realizing she had hit anyone. A male kitsune demon stared back at her, his big blue eyes blinking while he rubbed his cheek. He looked more like a girl than he did a guy-- he had long blue hair hanging in a loose ponytail behind him, and big blue fox ears drooped down by his eyes. He was dressed in clothes at least two sizes too big for his thin frame. A silky blue tail sat curled around him, twitching nervously. He gave Alianore a small wave and turned away to wipe the blood off the side of his face.

Ender cocked his head and looked at Alianore with interest. His wispy blue hair hung to the side as he tilted his head, showing the asteris mark on his forehead. It glowed slightly as he tried peering into Alianore's mind.

Alia felt the presence of him gently probing her mind for answers, and she shut him out, knocking him off his feet. Allie advanced towards her again, screaming, "What did I JUST tell you?"

This time Allie was held back by a silver-haired woman. Allie turned to glare, but her expression softened slightly as she recognized the demoness holding her back. The silver-haired demoness smiled, her pale lips turning up slightly in an effort. She lifted her milky white hand from Allie's tanned shoulders and seemed to float over to Z, who was discarding a bandage he'd used on his face but had fallen off. She touched his face lightly and the scratch was gone, his face whole again.

"Ohime-sama," Ender greeted, bowing respectfully. The silver-haired demoness acknowledged him with a nod and another soft smile, before turning and leaving the room, her silver yukata flowing behind her.

Allie growled from the corner. "I could have taken her," she muttered to Ender, clenching her fists. Ender rolled his eyes, leaving the violent Allie to her own thoughts.

Alianore snickered. It was obvious who the older of the two was here.

Ender answered her thought before she had a chance to finish. "Actually, Allie's the older one," he smiled, rolling up his sleeves, "I'm actually a couple hundred years behind her. I'm just at a more mature stage than Allie, that's all."

Allie's throbbing forehead was visible feet away. "WHAT WAS THAT? _Ender!"_ She slid up to him, her hands on her hips and her teeth grinding angrily. She glared death at him.

He poked her in the stomach, causing her to giggle, where he took the advantage to slip away and help Alianore off the floor. "Gomen," he apologized for Allie. "She doesn't really mean anything she says."

"WHO SAYS SO?" Allie roared from the floor, where she'd sat down to get a better view of the room. Ender shook his head.

Z spoke up, his voice soft and almost incoherent. "When is Ai-sama coming back?"

Alianore looked over: this was the first time she'd heard him speak at all.

Allie saved the sudden silence that had begun to creep over them. "She'll be back later, that's all I heard. Ohime-sama told me she'd be back after going to visit Ryu-chan."

A cord struck Alianore. This wasn't her team. Ryu was part of her team. Where was she? Who _were_ these people?

Ender sensed her thoughts of confusion. "Oh, gomen, I guess we forgot to tell you; you blacked out at the bash, and Mar-lo dropped you off with Ohime-sama. We're Team Hitokiri, in case you didn't know."

"Hito-kiri..." she muttered. She'd heard the name before. It sounded so...familiar. Except she couldn't recall where she could have possibly heard of them.

"Our captain is Ryu Shoku's older sister," Allie informed her, not requiring Ender's assistance in being able to answer questions before they were spoken aloud this time. "Ai Satsugitsune."

"Doesn't ring a bell," Alianore replied.

"We're not exactly on speaking terms," answered a voice. Another kitsune came traipsing down the stairs, sporting regular ningen clothes even though they were in Maikai and could wear whatever they pleased. This kitsune was more outspoken then Z, as Alianore could tell just from the way she walked. She swung her hips and sailed down the rest of the stairs on the banister. Long silver-streaked black hair flashed in the light, illuminating her silver ears and tail. She landed on top of Z, whom she kissed on the cheek.

Z blushed violently. "Erm...hello, Ai-san."

Ai grinned brightly at him, standing up and offering him her hand to help him up. "Hi Z!" Next she walked over and kissed Ender on the cheek as well; though he did not turn as red as Z had. She greeted him just as warmly.

She hugged Allie hesitantly, not exactly willing to flirt as much with someone of the same sex. Allie shoved her off. "Get off me, crazy onna."

Ai shrugged and turned to Alianore. "Who's our new girl?"

Alia opened her mouth to speak. Ender interrupted, saying, "Ai, this is Alianore, Alianore, Ai. She's from Team Ukishima."

"So what's she doing here?" Ai asked suspiciously, arching her thin eyebrows. "She's not with Hotaru-san, is she?"

"Hotaru-san?" Alianore inhaled sharply. Hotaru-san was the _King's pet._ What would she be doing here?

Ai nodded. "Yeah; Ikuhara Hotaru, Koe, Momoko, Kancho, Renee. Kaleo Team. So then you're with Ryu, yes?"

"More or less." Alia shrugged.

"How'd you get here?" Ai demanded.

"Mar-lo brought her," Ender answered.

Ai's eyebrows bent down. "Damn him." she muttered. She folded her arms for a minute. "Well, just make sure you go back to your team-- I'm sure they're wondering where their precious Alia's gotten off to."

Alianore could see why Ryu disliked her sister so much.

Ender stepped in before Alianore picked up on Allie's habits of cursing. "Alianore-san, how about we walk you home?"

Dark energy seeped over in Alia's direction. "Yes. Let's." growled Allie, taking Ender by the arm. Ai ushered Z out with them.

"Are they gone?" came a questioning whisper several minutes later. Ai nodded. Ohime-sama came out from behind a board against a wall. She shook her hand lightly, then threw something across the floor.

Ai bent down to inspect what Ohime had just thrown. Three dice lay scattered on the floor. "What does this mean?" she asked, picking up one die. A picture of a serpent devouring a heart was depicted on one face-up side.

Ohime took the die, then looked up at Ai, her milky white skin looking even more grave. "Someone from an alliance made in this tournament is going to die." she informed her. She held out her hand; and the other two die zoomed back into her palm. "I shall speak to you later."

Ai stared after the Tenshi demoness as she left the room. She had a pretty good feeling about who was going to go down.  
----------------------------


	14. Missing Alliance

_I do not own YYH. Aiya._

**A/N:** Hm...well to answer a question asked, YES, Keiko is in this fic-- WHY WOULD YOU RUIN THE STORY LIKE THAT? That gives away a part of the end...-clamps hand over mouth- Did I just say that out loud?

Chibi-S-chan: And if you don't remember why the Tournament's taking place then why don't you go and look? But I'll inform you anyway since most people have probably forgotten:

_'Send,' he clicked, instantly sending a message to fighters world-wide. This time it wouldn't be his life on the line, it'd be others. Now he understood why demons with so much power killed so often. If there was no use for it, then it became a bore. The King had become bored with his powers. No one proved to be worthy of his challenge anymore.  
So now he was starting his own tournament.  
_

That bit is from the first chapter-- the first couple PARAGRAPHS! Aiya...anyway, thank you everybody for sending in characters, they are most appreciated, and are always used. It's not too late to enter-- as I've said before, the sequel will require characters too. -important voice- ON WITH THE FIC!

-------------------------

Three of the members of Team Hitokiri had walked Alianore back. Allie had been shooting her evil glances the entire way back-- as if she would incinerate her with one look if she could have. And having already gotten on Allie's bad side, Alianore was sure that would probably be the case.

"Well are you leaving or not?" Allie asked crossly, waiting for Alianore to step into the hotel room of the girl members of Team Ukishima.

Alianore shrugged. "Not just yet." she said. She turned the doorknob and called inside for Ryu to get her butt outside before it was dragged out. Minutes later Ryu materialized form the shadows, dressed in a very baggy black night dress that hung off one shoulder. A toothbrush was hanging out of her mouth.

There was an awkward silence as Ryu stared down the members of Team Hitokiri. Her eyes blazed when they landed on Ender. "What are you doing here?" she grumbled.

Ender's eyes narrowed, the asteris on his forehead glowing. Ryu met his gaze and didn't once look away.

"If I may break up the moment," said Allie, breaking the tension, "but didn't Alianore want something?"

Ryu's head turned full circle to look at Alia. Z inched away from the flexible-boned wraith. "Do you need something?" she asked.

"Yes, actually," said Alianore, brushing off her arms as a way to avoid Ryu's crude stare. "I'd like you to go down and speak with your sister; Ai, and ask her about an alliance between our teams. We could use the help-- the more allies we have, the better chances we have of making it to the top."

Ryu's toothbrush fell out of her mouth and hit the floor. "I will speak to no _Ai's,"_ she said simply. She walked back into the room and slammed the door behind her.

"I feel welcome," said Allie sarcastically. "And anyway, if you're looking for friends, I suggest you try a different team-- we're not interested."

Ender interrupted her. "Hang on a sec, Allie-- I think she's onto something. If we have our teams allied, then we stand a good chance of winning against the King."

"Excuse me? The King?" Alia echoed. "Nobody said anything about going up against the King."

"The winning team must defeat the King of Demons in order to win the tournament," Z spoke up, "that is the condition of winning. The captain of that team must kill the King-- that is, if they want to be the next King of Demons."

"The other team members become Kings of other regions of Maikai," said Ender. "Which is why, if we ally our teams, a member from each of our teams can be the alternate for the other team, giving us double the chance of becoming a King. You're very smart, Alianore-san, I'll give you that."

"Domo arigato," Alia thanked him.

Z tugged at his long ponytail. "Come on-- Ohime-sama wants us back. Ai's waiting for us."

Allie nodded, bounded down the hall and ran outside. Z followed her, Ender close behind. "We'll talk later, Alianore-san!" he yelled over his shoulder, sprinting to catch up with the bouncing Allie and the frantic kitsune Z.

Alia nodded before opening the door to the room. Kay and Botan greeted her, both in their pajamas. Kay threw a pillow at her head.

"Where have you been?" she cried, jumping onto the couch. "We've been waiting ages for you to come back!"

"What on Earth for?" Alia yawned, stretching. "It's not like we really need each other for much more than to fight battles. What else do you want?"

"Because Mar-lo went down to go hang out with the TianLung Feng group." Ryu informed her. "They want you to go with them so they can watch Mar-lo get his ass kicked by Shira."

Alainore raised her eyebrows. "I've always thought Shira was nicer than that. Why would she try to kick Mar-lo's butt if he hasn't done jack squat to her?"

Kay grinned. "'Cause she hates Mar-lo. She hates Thomas too, but I'm sure he's gotten his ass kicked a couple times."

Alai snorted. "Doesn't everyone hate Mar-lo?"

"I don't hate Mar-lo." piped up Botan. "I think he can be quite the gentleman."

"Yeah," Kay scoffed, "to Shizuru."

"He only sucks up to you to get to her." Ryu said nonchalantly from the bathroom. She stepped out, the toothbrush gone from her mouth.

Kay giggled. "That is true, Ryu-chan. Now, let's go see Mar-lo get his face bashed in!"

"You're so supportive of your teammates, Kay," Alia said sarcastically, rolling her eyes. Kay smiled, flashing her an "I know," look of innocence. She grabbed Alianore by the elbow and pulled her out of the hotel room.

They had only just rounded the corner when Mar-lo's loud voice came down the hall in a loud screech. More high pitched screams followed, and the sound of breaking glass followed that.

Kay, Alianore, and Botan carefully peeked around the corner. Mar-lo was backed up against the wall across from he room Shira and her teammates were staying in. Shira stood in the doorway, her face flushed and her perfectly placed brown hair hanging half way out of its ponytail. She was clutching a glass vase in one hand, while gripping the doorknob with the other.

Mar-lo edged away from Shira, trying to make a quick escape. Shira's eyes followed him. When he reached the elevator at the end of the hall and tried to make a run for it she hurled the vase at his head. The vase missed his ear narrowly.

"Watch where you're aiming that thing!" Mar-lo shouted, pressing the button for the elevator repeatedly.

"I'm only sorry I missed!" Shira screamed, grabbing a random object out of the armful her friend Maridona was holding for her. She ran out of the room, headed for the elevators.

Mar-lo spotted Shira's ankle boots rounding the corner. Forgetting the elevator, he took off at breakneck speed for the stairs. He kicked off his horrible wooden shoes and threw them behind him, hoping one of them had hit the angry team captain on his tail. A loud scream from Maridona told him he had hit the wrong girl.

Botan giggled from where she and the other two girls were standing. "I think we'd better save Mar-lo before he gets into serious trouble. He won't be able to fight tomorrow if Shira knocks the stuffing out of him."

Kay sighed. "Botan's right." On a second thought she muttered "I guess so." Alianore knocked her on the head lightly with her fist and took off for the stairs in the other direction. Kay yelped out a "hey!" and ran after her. Botan watched as both girls vanished from sight up the stairs. When she was sure both were gone, she tentatively stepped forward and walked into the room reserved for team TianLung Feng.

She was greeted by a woman with straight jet black hair that flowed to the silver coated belt of her simple black trench coat. Ebony eyes stared out of a pale white face with high cheekbones and pursed lips. "Bow-ten?" she asked.

"Botan," corrected Botan.

"Whatever," said the tight-lipped woman. She unfolded her arms, revealing a tight black shirt and a pair of leather shorts that were too short beneath her coat. "About what we spoke about earlier. You have Ryu and Ai, yes?"

"Yes," Botan echoed. "They're both positioned in the tournament. Ai is captain of Team Hitokiri, and Ryu is posted on Team Ukishima."

"It's a shame we lost Remei," the other woman sighed, inspecting perfectly manicured black fingernails. "We could have used her to our advantage. Well, no matter; I assume Ohime will do."

Thomas stepped into the room where Botan and the black haired woman had been speaking. A fork was stuck in his mouth, and he stopped chewing whatever food he had been eating when both women turned to glare at him. He swallowed. "Eh...gomen, ladies, gomen for interrupting...please excuse me." he made an abrupt turn and started in the other direction.

The black haired woman clamped her long fingered hand down on his shoulder. "Why don't you stay with us a while, Thomas?" she suggested, leading him back into the room with Botan. Her nails dug into his shoulder, causing him to squirm.

"I suppose, Ukiya-san." he said, forcing a smile, and despite the force still managing to look absolutely at home.

Botan shifted uncomfortably. "I thought that only three of us knew about this, you never said anything about being able to tell more than three people--"

Ukiya interrupted her. "I'm sorry for the inconvenience then, Botany-san--"

"Botan."

"--Botan, but what I wish to do with my teammates is of no consequence to you or anyone of Koenma's supporters, now is it not? I didn't think so."

"But only three--"

Ukiya's face darkened. "What did I just say?"

Botan huffed. "I only told Kurama, Alianore, and the Masked Fighter! You were supposed to only have told Ohime, Hotaru, and--"

"Whom I tell my business to is my business, Bo-tane-san!"

"For the last time it is _Botan!"_ Botan shrieked, pulling a frame off the wall and hurling it for the other woman's face.

The frame stopped midair an inch from Ukiya's nose. It dropped to the floor, revealing a look of concentrated self-control on Ukiya's face.

Botan snatched the fork from Thomas's mouth and threw it at her. It hit Ukiya's cheek, taking a chunk of flesh with it. This seemed only to enrage Ukiya-san even more.

Ukiya opened her eyes. No ebony eyes stared back at Botan; gaping holes had taken their place. Ukiya's mouth became lined with needle-like teeth, gnashing and swirling around the snake-like black tongue that uncurled out of that mouth. Her fingers elongated into four jointed sticks curling into fists. Black energy seeped over her coat and coated her in wraith robes.

"You dare to mar my beautiful face!" Ukiya screeched, her voice magnified ten times and heightened to a horrible wail. "How dare you interfere with my plans! I'll devour your heart and soul if I wish, dear _Botan-_san!" she swooped forward, devouring the scream that emitted form Botan's throat as a huge wraith came down on her, bony fingers digging deep into her flesh.

Thomas stumbled out of the room, shocked by what he had seen. He had seen Toki Ukiya do this to her victims; suck out their souls and devour them-- but never to her allies!

Toki Ukiya's wraith head swiveled around to face Thomas. "You!" she screeched, blocking his escape. She swooped down on him as well, her slimy hands grabbing Thomas around the neck. "You tell no one!" she hissed in his ear. He nodded, nearly vomiting at the stench of her decaying body.

Toki dropped him, finished. Her wraith body was suddenly gone and replaced with the beautiful ivory skinned woman again. She picked a strand of loose hair off her sleeve before kicking Botan into a corner. Botan moaned, her face exceptionally pale. She shuddered as Toki continued to stuff her into the corner until she was an unnoticeable lump under a stack of strewn clothes.

Thomas cringed. "Was that entirely necessary?" he asked.

Toki's eyes flashed. "Would you rather have this happen to you?" On a second thought, he shook his head.

"Now who's going to be your go-between? How are you going to get to the Koenma supporters now? I mean, now that you've...erm...disposed of Botan-san?" he choked on 'disposed.'

She shrugged. "I've got connections with Team Reform. I'm sure Terja or Hiei won't mind. We've already established this with Kurama, so it'll have to be someone we haven't picked yet." She stuffed her hands in her pockets and headed for the door. "Oh yeah," she said, pausing, "don't let Shira find the body. We don't need her to worry. She's got to fight tomorrow."

"So do I!"

He heard something that sounded distinctly like a "So what?" come from Toki as she left. He shook his head, retying his hair back into its ponytail. He would hate to be the three wraiths that Toki had come to round up before the tournament had ended.

**A/N:** OKies then! That chapter's done...here's the new team stats: (don't worry-- there are more teams and more people still needed)

Team Kaleo: full

1. Chi Koen Koe

2. Kurai Momoko

3. Kage Kancho

4. Hotaru Ikuhara

5. Renee

Team Hitokiri: full.

1. Ai Satsugikitsune

2. Allie

3. Ender

4. Z Kaitah

5. Ohime Yakusoku

Team Reform: full

1. Kurama

2. Hiei

3. Kuwabara

4. Yukina (SHOCK!)

5. Terja

Team Fugishima: full

1. Akira Fugishima

2. LanLan

3. Fyrea

4. Nikoji

5. Kageryu Jaganshi

Team TianLung Feng:  
1. Shira Trusea

2. Thomas Maximillian

3. Maridona Nightshade

4. Toki Ukiya

**5. EMPTY!**


	15. To Dance

**A/N:** Sorry it took me so long to update! I've been really busy with school, finals, one acts, the musical (too many cast members!), dinner theatre...I've had like no time for anything. I'd nearly forgotten about this story, so I had to go back and reread it. -sheepish grin- Sorry again, everyone.  
OK, so now that I've made my apology, we can move on with the story. I think I lost a character somewhere. If you sent one in and you don't see it on the team stats, let me know because I'm almost positive I lost one. And that would be bad.  
Moving on.  
I do not own YYH. -sigh-  
------------------------------------------  
"Ow..." Mar-lo whined, jumping as Kay adjusted the ice pack on his head. She shook her head at him, making tsk tsk sounds. She got up off the bed and moved to the other side of the room where Alia and Ryu lay on the couch dozing off before the next match.

Kay tutted. "I told you not to piss off Shira, but do you listen to me? Nooo, Mar-lo never listens to Kay. You just kept badgering her until she caught you. Now what do you have to say for yourself"

"Ow..." he repeated. He made a face at Kay, but quickly changed his expression as Shizuru invited herself in. "Hello Shizuru-san," he greeted, smiling. She nodded at him and sat on the couch beside Ryu, who slumped over on the floor. Kay twitched as Ryu let out a loud snore.

"Thought I'd drop by to go see the fight with you guys," stated the ever calm Shizuru. Kay nodded and elbowed Mar-lo when she noticed the slight drip of drool threatening to slide from the corner of his mouth. Shizuru didn't seem to notice. "Kurama tells me the competition's getting a lot tougher. He told me to tell Mar-lo not to slack off any more and get his butt in gear."

"I'm sure it was in those exact words, too." Kay said dryly. Mar-lo didn't seem to care that the object of his adoration had just insulted him. Either that or he hadn't realized it yet. "So, Shizuru-san," she continued on a brighter note, "who'd getting their ass kicked today"

Shizuru brushed a lock of hair behind her ear before answering her. "I heard it was TianLung Feng against Fugishima. This should be interesting. The two Trusea's against a Fugishima. I'd like to see that one"

Kay arched an eyebrow. "Why? Is there bad blood or something between them?"

"It's probably nothing," she replied, "but I heard that the two Akira's got into a spat a couple years back, and rumor had it that the fight ended with the death of one of the Fugishima's."

Ryu suddenly sat up and screamed, "CHIQUITA!" Which brought the three in the room who were already awake to stare at her. Ryu gave them a blank look in return. "What?" she asked. Kay shook her head, muttering a "nothing" under her breath.

"I'll bet Ryu wants to see today's fights," teased Mar-lo. "Her cousin or whatever is fighting with the TianLung Feng groupies."

Ryu's eyes narrowed. "If you are speaking of Ai, then she is not fighting today. She will not be fighting any time soon, either, if I have any say in that matter. And she is not my cousin. I would prefer if she was not my anything."

"Sisters," Kay whispered to the suddenly curious Shizuru-san. Mar-lo stuck out his lower lip in an attempt to make a sad face. "Oh come on, Ryu, don't you love your big sis anymore? Don't tell me you're afraid to fight your sister, are you?"

Ryu glared from beneath tousled black hair hanging in her eyes. "Silence, wooden boy," she growled, clenching her teeth.

"That's a new one," Mar-lo continued. "I kind of like it. Wooden boy. It has a nice ring to it, doesn't it? Makes me sound like Pinnocchio. Reminds me of some of the nice names Ukiya-san has for you."

Ryu's head snapped up. "Ukiya who?" she shouted, grabbing Mar-lo by his shirt collar. "Where did you hear the name Ukiya! Who told you she was out here?"

Mar-lo pried the small bony fingers of the wraith-girl off his shirt before answering her calmly, "I picked up her name from Z, that kitsune who's afraid of his own shadow. He mentioned Ukiya and, of course, the ever famed Ai."

Ryu tensed. "Ukiya who?" she repeated.

"I don't know," he answered her. "All I know is the name and that she's got more with her."

"More what?" Kay jumped in.

"Z didn't say," Mar-lo yawned. "He just kept saying she had more with her. More of them. Whatever the hell that meant." he barely had a chance to get another word out before Ryu tore out of the room, slamming the door particularly loudly behind her.

"What's her problem?" asked Shizuru, lighting up a cigarette. Kay gave a small half-smile, not sure what kind of answer to give the ningen woman.  
--------  
Koto smiled at the audience as the next two fighting teams joined her in the center of the ring. "Team TianLung-Feng versus Team Fugishima! Team captains shake hands!"

Shira elbowed Thomas out of the way as she stuck out her hand for the captain of Team Fugishima to take. The five fighters stared at her before one member slowly held out his hand and took Shira's. He shook her hand with utmost precision, almost as if he were afraid he might break her if he grasped her hand too tightly.

"Captains, please choose your first fighters!" said the ever enthusiastic Koto.

Shira got a glint in her eye as she locked her hand around Thomas's forearm. "You," she smiled maliciously, "do me a favor and check out their team, won't you?"

Thomas tilted his head, saying, "Glad to help you, Shira-san." he stepped closer to Koto as his team filed off the stage. The captain for Fugishima tapped a finger on the shoulder of a Chinese fighter. He grunted something in her ear before herding his teammates offstage.

"And so we begin with our first two fighters, Thomas Maximilllian and LanLan! Begin the fight in three...two...one!" Koto jumped out of the way as the crowd watched in eager silence as the two fighters sized each other up.

Thomas brushed his hair out of his eyes while he and the Chinese fighter still circled. LanLan was built like a kitsune, with a small sleek body and graceful moves in her actions. She eyed Thomas for a minute before unsheathing a sword strapped to her hip. He waited for her to make the first move since he didn't seem to have any weapons on him at the moment.

"Are you two just going to stand and stare, or fight each other!" Koto hissed, a hand over the microphone.

LanLan's eyes shifted towards Koto, who began screaming as plant vines twisted around her ankles. "Stay like just that," LanLan instructed her. "maybe then little fox girl won't get hurt." She turned to Thomas, scraping the edge of her sword against the ground. "You, red hair fighter, do not cross this line. We do battle with minds instead of with weapons. Yes?"

Thomas arched an eyebrow, not seeing how this would work with his human blood. He shrugged and waited for his opponent to speak again. "Good," she smiled. "We start fight now."

A strong wave of nausea came over Thomas as LanLan stood and stared at him with her curious violet eyes. It took all his power to stay standing and fight the urge to barf into the stands. "Not so tough when you are on my turf, singsong man?" she teased. "Stay down!"

A stronger, more powerful wave hit Thomas, successfully knocking him off his feet and landing his face in the ground. LanLan giggled. "I thought you would be good at this," she said, "Akira-kun told me you would be a challenge. I don't see it."

The wave subsided and allowed Thomas to prop himself up on his elbows. Koto was too busy trying to free her ankles to notice that she should have began the count. "Then you have me all wrong, chibi-onna," he said, smiling. "I can be quite the challenge, if only given the opportunity."

"Really?" LanLan asked, twirling a strand of black hair around her finger. "I'd like to see that. Would you give me the honor of seeing this challenge."

"Why of course," he smiled, "anything for a young lady. Come now, we'll have a dance. How does that sound?"

Shock registered on his opponent's face for a split second before she regained her cool. "An excellent proposal," she said, holding out her hand. Thomas took her hand and began waltzing around the ring with her.

"Ladies and gentlemen, it appears that the two contestants are...dancing with each other! This isn't part of the fight! This is sacrilege! There has to be something against this in the rulebook! Someone get me a rulebook!" Koto screeched into the mike. Demons in the stands roared in anger and confusion. "BLOOD!" they shouted. "SPILL HIS BLOOD!"

Up in the stands, Mar-lo watched with a gaping mouth. "Are you kidding me, Thomas you IDIOT! You can't dance at a time like this! Stop hitting on the enemy and get on with it!"

But the two fighters seemed to be enjoying themselves and not paying attention to the screams and insults pelting their ears from the stands.

"What the hell is he doing!" Shira shouted above the crowd. "Don't tell me I've got to go out there and fix this!" Even Ukiya looked mildly surprised.

"What do you think you're doing?" screamed one of the Fugishima fighters. "Fight, you imbecile!"

"Don't listen to the crowd," LanLan whispered, trying to keep the movement of her lips to a minimum. "Keep your eyes on me. I have something to tell you."

"Pertaining to the tournament, or do you have something else in mind?" asked Thomas, keeping his eyes locked on LanLan's.

LanLan swung him around suddenly and Thomas dipped her close to the ground. "Make sure no one can see us talking," she said quickly. Taking a quick look at the audience and the two teams told Thomas that all eyes were trained on them.

"Can't guarantee anything," he said. "Keep dancing," LanLan instructed. "You remember the party from the prelims?" she didn't wait for his answer. "The King was there. Supposedly he spoke with your friend Mar-lo's teammates, Kay and the kitsune onna."

Thomas arched an eyebrow. "What does this have to do with me?"

"Everything," she answered as they danced a circle around the still-struggling Koto. "the King's name is Yusuke. He was Koenma's spirit detective, the only one that lasted longer than Hotaru. Pass that information on."

"To who?" he asked. He twirled LanLan around before bringing her close enough to answer him, "The masked fighter."

"Who is he?" he questioned. "I still don't know who it is."

LanLan smiled and jerked her hand from Thomas's grasp. Her sword lashed out and caught his pant leg, tearing both his pants and the top couple layers of skin off his leg. "I know her name." she taunted. "Her na--"

Thomas was unable to hear the rest of LanLan's words as he was hit by another mental wave of energy sent to sweep his feet out from underneath him. His ears began to ring and black fuzz started to creep towards the center of his vision.

"...eight!" Koto's voice swam somewhere around his head. He knew he should get up before the count ended and Shira decided to murder him, but the same force that had knocked him down kept him down.

"Nine...Te--" the count was cut short as LanLan picked him up off the ground and shook him back and forth.

"Look, see, he's still up." she said to Koto. "The fight does not end just yet."

"But the count was already--"

"I'm not finished yet." LanLan said convincingly, giving Koto an icy stare. The kitsune backed off and returned to trying to pry her feet out of the plant's death grip. "Who's the masked fighter?" Thomas managed to slur out before another wave hit him.

"Stand up and fight if you really want to know," she replied, "or are you too weak? Yes, human boys should not come to play with the demons and spirits. How about you show me that singing voice of yours and I'll let you keep your right arm, sound good?" She twisted his arm until the bone cracked to prove her point.

Stars danced in Thomas's vision now. "Who is the masked fighter?" he repeated, losing all feeling in his twisted arm.

LanLan pursed her lips. "You are no challenge," she said. "You are merely a human boy who has gotten in over his head and loses face in the middle of battle. And I will not tell you what her name is now."

"Then you have lost my interest," he said. "Have a nice day." He grabbed LanLan's arms and pulled her down to the ground as he fell.

"They're both down!" Koto screamed. "The count goes to both Thomas and LanLan in one...two...three...four..."

Shira folded her arms and watched as both fighters had large red _'X's'_ drawn on their pictures on the screen over the stadium. She waited as two cleanup ogres dragged her team member back to her side of the stands. "Well?" she said, tapping her foot and waiting for a response from Thomas.

The singing teen smiled up at his captain. "I know who it is," he coughed. "She told me."

"Know who what is?" Ukiya asked, resting a pale hand on Shira's shoulder. Shira shrugged.

"That's what I'd like to know. What are you talking about?"

"Team TianLung-Feng, we're waiting! Send in your next fighter!" Koto sounded impatiently from the ring.

Shira glanced up at the next fighter. A small black haired demoness in a purple kimono waited at Koto's elbow. Shira looked to Ukiya for suggestions, but she was already on her way to center-stage.

"Team fighters, shake hands." Koto ordered. "Agreement to a bloody battle to the death!"

Ukiya gave the smaller fighter a tight-lipped smile. "Toki Ukiya, agreement to a bloody battle to the death."

The smaller girl nodded. "Kageryu Jaganshi, agreement to a bloody battle to the death." The two shook hands tensely before waiting for Koto's signal.

"Toki Ukiya of Team TianLung-Feng versus Kageryu Jaganshi of Team Fugishima! Fight till there's no more blood to spill! Begin!"

"I hope you've had a fulfilling life," Kageryu said lightly. "Because it's going to end very soon. KAGE WAKERU!"  
-  
**A/N:** OK well that was the work of a couple days being sick...sorry I haven't updated in a reeeeeeeeeally long time but I've been busy and I'm very forgetful...plus I kind of lost the document that I always put this on...but anywho, keep sending in characters! The masked fighter should be revealed in the next couple chapters-- so keep reading and try to guess who it is!  
Always, -S-chan-  
Team Kaleo: full

1. Chi Koen Koe

2. Kurai Momoko

3. Kage Kancho

4. Hotaru Ikuhara

5. Renee Team Hitokiri: full.  
1. Ai Satsugikitsune

2. Allie

3. Ender

4. Z Kaitah

5. Ohime Yakusoku

Team Reform: full

1. Kurama

2. Hiei

3. Kuwabara

4. Yukina (SHOCK)

5. Terja

Team Fugishima: full

1. Akira Fugishima

2. LanLan

3. Fyrea

4. Nikoji

5. Kageryu Jaganshi

Team TianLung Feng:

1. Shira Trusea

2. Thomas Maximillian

3. Maridona Nightshade

4. Toki Ukiya

5. Akira Trusea

(sorry there are some punctuation errors because the computer isn't working correctly.)


	16. MIA

**A/N:** Hm...sorry, but for some reason my computer is erasing a lot of punctuation. Happy reading!

_"Team fighters, shake hands." Koto ordered. "Agreement to a bloody battle to the death."  
Ukiya gave the smaller fighter a tight-lipped smile. "Toki Ukiya, agreement to a bloody battle to the death."_

_The smaller girl nodded. "Kageryu Jaganshi, agreement to a bloody battle to the death." The two shook hands tensely before waiting for Koto's signal._

_"Toki Ukiya of Team TianLung-Feng versus Kageryu Jaganshi of Team Fugishima! Fight till there's no more blood to spill! Begin!"_

_"I hope you've had a fulfilling life," Kageryu said lightly. "Because it's going to end very soon. KAGE WAKERU!" -_

Kay waved her hand in front of Ryu's face. "Hello? Ryu? Ryu Shoku, are you in there?" she turned to Yukina, who had come to watch the fight with them today. "Hey, Yukina, what's up with the wraith girl?"

Yukina looked over Kay's shoulder to find that Ryu's focus had definitly wandered elsewhere. Her eyes were smokey and her fists clenched and unclenched at her sides. "Ryu-chan, are you all right?" the ever-kind ice maiden asked. When she didn't get an answer, she turned back to Kay. "What do you think, Kay? You're her best friend. Do you think something's bothering her?"

Kay shrugged. "I wouldn't know," she said coldly. "I'm not her friend, apparently."

Yukina seemed taken aback, and was about to ask another question when Mar-lo plopped down beside her and handed her a box of popcorn. "Didn't know they sold popcorn in the Maikai," he laughed, popping a few kernels into his mouth. "Thought that was only a ningen thing!"

"Pop...corn?" Yukina repeated slowly, confused.

Kay gasped. "Oh yeah, that's right! Yukina's never been to a ningen home! I'll bet you Mar-lo's left shoe she's never had popcorn either!"

"Hey!" Mar-lo protested, his mouth full of popcorn.

Yukina looked even more confused. "What is...pop...corn?"

Alia crashed into Mar-lo's back as she missed the last step when she heard that Yukina had never heard of popcorn before. Popcorn flew out of the box and all over Kay and Ryu, while cherry flavored pepsi spilled onto Mar-lo's head. As he ran off screaming that he had soda in his eyes, Alia gladly took his spot beside Kay. "Who's winning?" she asked through a mouthful of popcorn.

"I'm almost positive Kageryu's winning," Kay said, squinting at the stadium. "But nobody can see anything through that miasma." she pointed Alia's eyes in the direction of the miasma all the energy Kageryu had summoned had created. "We're not entirely sure what happened to the announcer chick, either"

Ryu shook her head. "It's not Kageryu," she muttered. "Ukiya's winning. Ukiya always wins. Nobody escapes Ukiya. No one"

"You want to repeat that? I can't hear you!" Kay cupped her hand around her ear to try and hear Ryu over the complaints of the crowd. Ryu shook her head and returned to her vegetated state.

Alia stood, trying to see if she could see anything better from another point of view. But there was no point, since the energy seemed to surround the ring from all sides, including overhead. She scanned the crowd, looking for any empty spots where she might be able to take a closer look. She finally spotted an empty space, which conveniently happened to be beside Allie and Ender. With a groan she headed towards the front, trying to avoid conflict with any demons who might alert them to her prescence.

When she reached the front, though, Allie and Ender were watching the miasma with as much interest as they would give a fly buzzing around their heads. Allie rolled her eyes. "It's you," she said. "I thought it might have been Ai, but no, it's got to be the annoying baka kitsune." Ender elbowed her and held out his own box of popcorn to Alianore in apology.

"She doesn't mean that," he said, smiling.

"Yeah, right," Allie mocked. "I don't mean it." Ender kicked her beneath the stands. "Ow, Ender you bas-- I mean, sorry." she smiled at Alia. Alia returned her own fake smile.

"Can you guys see anything from here?" she asked, sitting beside Ender (she didn't want to have to deal with sitting next to Allie). "Nope," Allie responded, slurping a bright blue slushie.

"Nobody can. They're thinking of sending in a rescue team if things keep up much longer." Alia nodded. "Hey wait, couldn't you just penetrate that smokey-stuff, Ender, and see what the hell's going on in there"

Ender shook his head. "Both Ukiya and Kageryu's minds are closed to mine. I couldn't get inside their heads even if I wanted to"

Alianore stared at Ender. "You read minds?"

"Yeah," Allie answered for him, "and he kicks ass, too. The only thing he can't do is get wraiths or demons with jagans. And that's just sad, isn't it Ender? Oh yeah and that he completely wipes out every time he gets a brainfreeze. Don't you, Ender?" she teased, sloshing her slushie around in the cup under his nose. Ender wrinkled his nose in disgust and turned the slushie away from him. Allie flashed him a smile with her slushie-blue teeth.

Alia nodded, as if to say, "right. gotcha. you do that." While Alia and Allie bickered, the teams down by the stadium weren't having any more luck seeing into the smog than those in the stands.  
"What the hell?" complained another Chinese fighter from Fugishima. "I thought we were done with the crap when LanLan was finished. Don't tell me Kageryu's dancing the tango in there"

"Shut up, Fyrea," LanLan shot back from her seat against the stands. "You don't even know what you're talking about"

"Don't I?" Fyrea smiled coyly. "Nikoji, tell her I know what I'm talking about"

Nikoji looked up from his sleeping position against the stadium. "How many times do I have to remind you two that I'm not going to get in the middle of these things?" he grumbled.

Fyrea pouted. "Oh come on, Nikoji, when do I ever ask you for favors?" she plopped herself down next to him and laid her head on his shoulder.

"When do you ever stop asking me for favors?" he mumbled, shifting away from his teammate. Fyrea's mouth hung open.

"Akira!" she wailed. "Akira! Did you hear what Nikoji just said to me? He's a meany! Akira are you listening to me? Did you hear what your fighter just said to me? Akiraaaa"

"What?" Akira finally snapped, his eyes flitting from the fight to Fyrea for a moment. He glared at her through slitted yellow eyes.

The Chinese girl stuck out her lower lip. "Nikoji was mean to me"

"She started it," LanLan called from the stands. Fyrea stuck out her tongue in response.

"Nikoji, go...take a time out or something," Akira said dismissivly to appease Fyrea, despite the fact that he could have cared less. If it weren't for the fact that he needed a team to win, he would have kicked them all out long before they'd reached the preliminary rounds.

"Yeah. Go stand in the corner." Fyrea giggled and pulled a marker from a pocket in Akira's vest. She walked up to Nikoji and scribbled "DUNCE" on his forehead. He swatted her away before turning to go back to sleep.

"Is it just me, or does this team not seem to care about its teammates?" asked a woman from beside Akira. She smiled at Fyrea as she sat down next to Nikoji.

Nikoji opened one eye. "Hello, Hotaru," he greeted. She nodded in response to him and turned her attention to the fight.

"What'd I miss?" she asked, crossing her legs. Fyrea made a face.

"Not much. They started the fight, and then poof, the whole thing goes up in smoke," she sighed. "At this rate we'll never see the end of--" her words were cut off as a flash of lightning and a crash of thunder interrupted the fight from inside the ring.

"Ladies and gentlemen, it appears as if it is...raining? Someone check the weather forecast! This isn't supposed to happen!" Koto's panicky voice came from inside the smog. "Think she found the mike?" Hotaru smirked. Akira grimaced.

"Hey, Nikoji, wake up," Fyrea said suddenly, jumping up. "the smoke's clearing. Come on, you lazy-ass fox, get up and see if your teammate's all right!" she grabbed his elbow and started dragging him inside the ring. "Is the fight over yet?" she called into the thinning smoke.

Koto coughed and stumbled away from the smoke to the outside of the ring. "Ladies and gentlemen, I think this fight is over! Toki Ukiya is the winner"

"What!" LanLan shouted. "Kageryu, what happened out there"

"Hey," Fyrea said, looking around. "Where is Kageryu? There's Ukiya, but where's...?" she left her sentence hanging as the smoke finally cleared, revealing only Ukiya in the center of the blackened remains of the ring. Kageryu was nowhere to be seen.

"It appears that Team Fugishima takes their second defeat, as Kageryu has mysteriously vanished from the ring! Team TianLung Feng wins by default"

"That's not fair!" LanLan exploded. "We're short a fighter now! How are we supposed to finish"  
Koto covered the mike with her hand before speaking to Team Fugishima. "Listen, I don't care if you're girl's dead and gone, as long as the fights carry on. If the opposing team wins this next match, they've won the round and you'll all be disqualified. if you have some kind of proposal to stay in the fight, then be my guest and say so." she held the mike out to Akira. He glared at Koto with his piercing yellow eyes, but didn't say anything.

"I don't like where this is going," Hotaru breathed to him. "Kageryu was probably one of the higher class demonesses here, and if somebody took her out as simple as that...well let's just say the rest of us won't stand a chance in hell"

Koto raised an eyebrow. "Do you have a statement to make, Fugishima-san?" Akira shook his head. Koto turned, shrugging. She blinked in surprise as the mike suddenly slipped from her hands into the hands of the clever kitsune Nikoji, who had awoken from his nap. He slung his arm over Koto's shoulders and spoke into the mike.

"Now love, what did you say was the matter with this fight? You say Kageryu, the little jaganshi onna, lost the fight? To who? This lady over here?" he waved the mike at Toki. "Look at her. She hasn't even got a scratch on her. You mean to tell me our little Kageryu fought with this slut and didn't even make a mark"

"Could I just have the mike back?" Koto pleaded, trying to escape Nikoji's grasp. She lunged for the microphone. The male kitsune was faster and pulled it out of her reach as she jumped.  
Toki's gaze fell onto Nikoji. She gave him one scathing look before returning to her team.  
"What's with that?" LanLan demanded. "Give me the mike!" Plants snaked around Nikoji's arm and snatched the mike from his grip. LanLan smiled and stole the microphone. She jumped up into the ring, shouting at Team TianLung Feng, "I know what you're doing, Toki Ukiya! And you will never succeed, so you know WHY"

"LanLan!" Akira shouted from the sidelines. "Don't you dare say that"

A loud bang cut off the Fugishima leader. A long crimson ribbon spurted from LanLan's chest as she fell towards the ground. The crowd screamed in anticipation.

Koto took the opportunity to return the mike safely to her own hands. "As far as I can tell, people, LanLan appears to have been shot! Please wait a few minutes before we get the full details from the board"

"LanLan!" Fyrea gasped, dropping everything else to rush into the ring. She fled to her teammates side, dropping to her knees and grabbing LanLan's wrist for a pulse. She breathed a sigh of relief as she discovered her friend was still alive. She looked back to Akira, flashing a smile.

On the other side of the ring, demons from the board had suddenly come down to interrogate Team TianLung Feng for any signs of foul play. "Fights are to take place outside of the stadium and inside the ring," one demon stated. "Not from any outside fighters to the inside ring"

"It wasn't us, if that's what you're asking," Shira spit in his face. "Nobody here except Thomas is low enough to do something that retarded. Besides, it didn't come from this side of the ring, it came from over there. And as you can see, my entire team is over here." She indicated her other four members; Maridona, Thomas, Akira and Toki.

"But you do have an alternate fighter?" he asked. Shira looked taken aback.

Toki answered for her. "Yes, youkai, we do have an alternate. But as you can see, he is not present, and if you wish to secure his whereabouts then I suggest you call the hotel at room number 219 and ask for Rihito Mitzuru. There you will find our alternate, and if you need further information then please feel free to ask our team any questions or consult the team application filled out before the preliminary rounds." she said coolly.

"But only four members are present," the demon protested.

"Besides me, yeah," Shira stepped in.

"No-- your fighter, er-- Thomas, the dancing fellow."

Toki turned around in shock to find that Thomas was no longer sitting in the sidelines. Scanning the crowd, she didn't find the redhead there, either. Shira looked in dismay.

"I could have sworn he was here a second ago," Maridona muttered, looking around in bewilderment. "I was just asking him about the masked fighter, and he suddenly just...poofed..."

"People don't poof, Maridona," Akira snorted. "I'm sure Thomas is around here somewhere."

"Until you relocate your team member, your team will accept a loss and go on with the round." the demon smiled.

"No way!" Shira yelled. "We're not gonna take a loss for that asshole! Give us fifteen minutes, and we'll find him!"

"Five minutes." he haggled.

"TEN." she growled. The demon nodded.

"You have ten minutes to find missing team member Thomas Maximillian of Team TianLung feng. Starting now." -----------------

Always, -S-chan-


	17. Popcorn

A/N: OK so I'm really sorry I haven't updated...also for the mix up in Nikoji's species, which is a neko and not a kitsune, so I'm really sorry. I fixed it though! But characters are still welcome, I always use them, so thank you everyone who has sent me one. I really appreciate it.

ON WITH THE STORY!

-------------------

"Until you relocate your team member, your team will accept a loss and go on with the round." the demon smiled.

"No way!" Shira yelled. "We're not gonna take a loss for that asshole! Give us fifteen minutes, and we'll find him!"

"Five minutes." he haggled.

"TEN." she growled. The demon nodded.

"You have ten minutes to find missing team member Thomas Maximillian of Team TianLung feng. Starting now."

---------------

"This is LOW, sir," George whispered into the ear of his new lord. "Even Yusuke wouldn't dream of cheating his way through a tournament, no, Yusuke was always an honest fighter--"

"Honest my royal ASS." his lord yelped back. Thomas stirred only feet away. "BE QUIET, OGRE, HE'LL HEAR YOU! THEY'LL ALL HEAR YOU FOR PETE'S SAKE!"

"But sire--"

"Quiet, oaf! This is my tournament and I'm not gonna let you ruin it!"

"OK sir."

Thomas sat up, rubbing his head. His vision swam before him, lights blurring together to paint a smeared face only feet away from where he sat on the ground. "Bloody hell, what did Shira hit me with now?" he muttered, feeling the bump on the back of his head.

The lord jumped up, scurrying over to where Thomas sat. "Hiya, Thomas!" he greeted.

"Hi," the bard managed to reply, the use of his voice causing his vision to blacken momentarily. "Who are you?"

"Look, ogre, you fat oaf, he doesn't recognize me!" the little lord shouted.

"Could you please stop shouting?" Thomas winced, holding his head. "You're voice is giving me a headache."

"Well your face is giving me a headache, but do you see me complaining? NO!" the little man shouted in his face. "Now I've no doubt that your teammates are out looking for you, as the whole tournament's about to go up in a panic...but what do you say I let you help me? You seem like a good guy, Thomas Maximillian. Not like that horrible Yusuke."

"Yusuke?" the bard lifted an eyebrow. "Who's he? Who're YOU?"

The lord laughed, nearly falling over. Thomas still couldn't see enough to quite make out who he was talking to, but he knew for sure who it sounded like.

Without warning he stood up, clicking on a light overhead. Little sparkling confetti pieces flew into Thomas's face as the ogre threw them all around his lord as he introduced himself as none other than-- "WHY, YOU SILLY BOY, I AM THE GREAT AND POWERFUL KOENMA, RULER OF THE SPIRIT WORLD!" and proceeded to jump onto a chair that seemed to have come out of nowhere. "OGRE! Fetch my whacking stick!"

Thomas blinked his vision back into place, and sure enough before his very eyes stood the toddler Koenma, blue pacifier and all. He squinted, asking, "Aren't you supposed to be dead or something?"

"Dead?" Koenma laughed, sitting down to calm his celebration down a bit. "Ogre, he thinks I'm dead, silly boy. You think Yusuke the demon king killed me, don't you? Just like everybody else."

"Well...yeah..." he spluttered. "Isn't that what happened? The Koenma followers even believe that!"

Koenma chewed thoughtfully on his pacifier before speaking. "Well actually, contrary to popular belief, your King Yusuke isn't as high and mighty or as cruel as you all believe him to be. He's really, in fact, Yusuke Urameshi, ex spirit detective, working for me. I guess you could call him something like a Koenma-like figure."

"Koenma-like figure?" George questioned.

Koenma smiled. "Well of course he could never be quite as fabulous as the real Koenma, but you get my drift. But in all seriousness, Thomas my boy, Yusuke has become the essence of evil. We don't quite understand what happened, but one day he turned on me in my human form and tried to kill me. Of course I ended up in the Spirit World, and Botan and Hotaru managed to rescue me from the River Styx after I floated there for three weeks." he shot a glare at George for not rescuing him first at this point in his story.

"So then what have you been doing all this time?" Thomas asked, standing. He felt silly being almost three feet taller than the ruler of the Spirit World. "I thought everything had basically gone down the tubes once you were gone."

"Oh, but it did," George chimed in. "Koenma sir went missing and all his paperwork piled up, and his father just about had a conniption and ended up causing a hurricane over in America, and poor Botan had to deal with all the souls pouring in by herself because half the ferry girls quit their jobs, and even a lot of the ogres stopped coming to work..."

"DID I SAY YOU COULD TALK?" Koenma shouted, throwing his whacking stick at George's head. "Now where were we, Thomas? Oh yes, death and all that fun stuff. What I've been doing. Well, this is exactly what I've been doing for the past couple months." More lights clicked on, illuminating a room that looked identical to Koenma's office in Spirit World. The screen in back flashed on to reveal a presentation already waiting for this particular explanation. "Now I had a friend of mine put on the King's staff to monitor exactly what was going on. She ended up sending us footage of Yusuke himself sending out the message for the tournament. We recorded the conversation between King Yusuke and the masked fighter from Team Ukishima under the screenname ku2yu, and ended up retrieving some very valuable information on her identity."

"Who is she?" Thomas asked, curious. He had been wondering who had tried to pull off the same stunt as the infamous Genkai in the Dark Tournament in this newer tournament.

"She's not Genkai," Koenma chirped. "And that's pretty much the only solid information we have. Botan couldn't even tell me who it was, and I specifically assigned her to that team with Kurama and Alianore. Other than that, we know that she's somebody Yusuke knows...and knows well. This girl seems to know exactly how to tick him off and get exactly what she wants."

"What did she do?" he asked.

"She simply wants Yusuke to stop the tournament." Koenma sighed. "But that's the problem. There's such a huge number of powerful demons here that I'm afraid even Yusuke's power couldn't stop them if they revolted against the cancellation of the tournament. You've seen some of the demons here! They're insane! The entire Fugishima clan is here, and that alone poses a problem because they're a well known guardian of the King's! You have no idea what I had to go through just to get here!"

Thomas frowned. "So then what's your plan?"

Koenma shared a look with George before continuing. "I plan on stopping her myself before she stops Yusuke. As much as I would like Yusuke to stop this tournament, we simply cannot afford to have a revolt on our hands. So here's the plan: I am going to remove one fighter from each team from this tournament. None of the teams have been informed, but the information may have possibly been leaked to the public by the wraith Toki Ukiya. Now once I have a fighter from each team, a second tournament will be held underneath the first one. Each team will fight as hard as they can on the surface thinking that it matters how many wins or losses they'll have-- when really, the fights below will determine who advances to the next round."

"Will that even work? Can you seriously have one team win all one fights and then stay behind because one fighter lost a single match?"

"You didn't let me finish. The fights on the surface determine who moves on, but the fights below the surface finish off the points. In other words, you get so many points for a win, lose so many for a loss, and the final fight determines exactly who moves on. But there's a catch."

"There always is." George sighed, and received a slap from a temperamental Koenma.

"The catch," Koenma continued, shooting more glares in the ogre's direction, "is the alternate fighter. Most teams bring one-- but some don't. Each team that has an alternate fighter will have two fighters below the surface instead of one. The teams without alternates will only have one fighter."

"Is that fair?" asked Thomas.

"No," Koenma smiled coyly, folding his arms, "But tournament's never are, are they? Besides, they should have thought ahead to bring an extra fighter. It's their own faults if they lose. Besides, your team has an alternate. Don't worry about it. So, do you want to help me?"

"Sure..." the bard answered, rather unsure of what he was getting himself into.

"Good!" Koenma grinned. "Then I'll page the surface and let them know exactly where you are, since I'm betting your team's looking around for you. After all, there was some foul play with the other team. We'll have your team's fight postponed until tomorrow, and you will be the first fighter under the surface. Does that sound simple enough to you? 'Cause I'm not explaining it again. If you have questions ask ogre." he hopped off his chair and waddled towards the exit. "Besides," he paused, "you're gonna need a full day to round up all the fighters. All fights postponed until tomorrow morning, ten A.M. sharp. Snap to it!" and then he vanished.

--------

"This is stupid," Fyrea growled. "How could all the fights be postponed? I swear, someone is out to sabotage this team. If I didn't know better I would say it was LanLan, but I fail to see why she would shoot herself and sabotage her own performance." the angry Chinese fighter scowled, her long red nails clicking on the window pane.

"I'm pretty sure that LanLan's just fine, Fyrea, no need to worry so consistently." Nikoji mumbled in sarcasm. He was taking the opportunity the tournament had granted him to sleep-- it was what neko's did best, after all.

She looked at her teammate in dismay. "How you can sleep at a time like this, lazy kitten, is beyond me! You're so full of yourself, you don't even care that we've been forced out of this fight by that THOMAS so that his team would get a second chance!"

"So what?" the neko grumbled. "We're thirty times better than any team here, so don't get your skirt in a bunch." Fyrea huffed at his last remark and pulled a blanket up over her legs.

"Would you two please shut up for a moment?" Akira asked, his tone dripping menace. He pushed aside the curtains to watch the night rainfall from the window beside Fyrea's perch on the sill.

"Move your skinny wolf ass and maybe I will," Fyrea sniffed. "Who're you to talk? You're just as mad as the rest of us--" Akira covered her mouth and pointed outside the window.

"Look at the window three above ours on the other side of the hotel. Do you recognize that man in the window?" She peered closely at the window Akira was pointing to.

"I can't see anything," she mumbled from behind his hand. "Kitten, come here and take a peek at what Akira-kun is looking at."

Moments later a very disgruntled Nikoji appeared at the window, growling from his lack of sleep due to Fyrea's interruptions. "What?" Akira gently lifted Fyrea from her seat, leaning in to show Nikoji exactly where to aim his sights. Fyrea pouted as she landed softly on the carpet.

"Do you recognize him?" whispered Akira.

Nikoji squinted. A man in black sat in the window sill three rooms above theirs on the other side. A faint glow came from the window where the man sat. "I can't even tell where his face is, Akira," Nikoji complained. "I don't see it."

"Look closer." he breathed. "Try not to let him see you."

"Where?" Fyrea demanded, getting up. She shouldered her way to the window, peering for a closer look.

"It's Hiei," Nikoji realized, his eyebrows shooting up and disappearing into his dark hair. "That short jaganshi from the Dark Tournament. He's a Koenma supporter, isn't he?"

"Really?" Fyrea squealed. "I've always wanted to see his jagan eye! I heard about Shigure-kun agreeing to work on him and I just had to see it, he does such fine work."

Akira rolled his eyes. "Come away from the window. Go to bed, both of you. I need to go check on LanLan."

"You don't need to tell me twice," Nikoji saluted, yawning. He dragged Fyrea over to one of the beds with him and flopped down on top of it. The neko promptly curled up, his tail swishing lightly. Fyrea sighed, pouting.

"I don't want to sleep," she told him.

"I don't care," he said, pulling her down beside him. The Chinese woman shrugged and gave in, curling up beside Nikoji and resting her head on his chest. It wasn't long before the two were stone asleep.

Akira's eye twitched at their closeness, but he wasn't one to judge their friendship, so he simply ignored the feeling and flicked off the light switch as he left.

-----------

"Well this sucks," Mar-lo smiled, plopping down on he couch once inside the hotel room. "Shira's short a fighter, the whole freak show might get disqualified, and Shizuru's been here the entire day. I'd say today was a success." His grin spread as Shizuru entered the room.

"Thanks for the flattery, Mar-lo, but I don't think I'm gonna stick around that long. I came here to see Yusuke and that's it. Kazuma's not in this tournament, so I don't have to stay and make sure he doesn't get killed." she announced, lighting a cigarette.

"And she's tired of looking at your ugly face," Kay laughed as she came in with a petrified Ryu linked to her arm. She ducked as a wooden shoe came flying towards her face.

Ryu looked towards the door. Alianore and Yukina had just come in, their arms full of popcorn bags. Yukina dropped half the bags on Mar-lo as she tried to make her way to the microwave in the small cube-like kitchen in their hotel room. "Sorry, Mar-lo-kun," she apologized quickly, gathering up the ones she had dropped and dropping even more bags instead.

"Don't apologize to that loser," Alianore corrected her. "Just leave him there, we'll go make the popcorn ourselves." She grabbed Yukina by the elbow and pulled her into the small kitchen, popcorn in hand. Mar-lo proceeded to make a rude hand gesture and then continued on with his conversation.

"So what ever happened to that Thomas guy, anyway?" Kay asked. "The fight just kind of stopped, and they didn't even say who won."

Mar-lo shrugged. "Not really sure...Thomas isn't really the kind of guy who would just ditch a fight like that. I mean, I don't know him enough to for sure say that he's not a coward...but he doesn't come off as one."

"He doesn't seem like a coward to me," Yukina said from the kitchen. "In fact, I think he's rather nice. I like the music he plays."

Ryu made a face. "Thomas Maximillian is the enemy. As far as I'm concerned, if he's not in the way he's one less thing I have to worry about. He's on a team with Ukiya-sama, so I'll be rather happy if their team gets disqualified."

"What about your sister's team?" Alianore asked. "Ai? What are you gonna do when we have to face her? I mean, you and Ukiya are family, and you're pretty much enemies...so what about when you have to face the Hitokiri team?"

"I don't have a sister," Ryu growled. "and I am not related to Ukiya."

"Stop dwelling in denial," chirped Kay. "It's not good for you. You're face will permanently freeze like that." she pointed to Ryu's soured expression. She gave Kay a scathing look before retreating to one of the bedrooms.

A loud clap of thunder sounded outside. Kay jumped up to sit on the back of the couch. "Ooh, I love storms," she gushed, looking out the window. Rain poured down, making little clicking sounds as it hit the glass.

"Where's Kurama?" Yukina asked, suddenly noticing that their favorite redhead boy was missing.

"Probably out picking up chicks with his beautiful, stunning red hair," Mar-lo said mockingly, flipping his own green hair behind him. Kay made a face at him in the window.

"Stop making fun of Kurama-kun," she frowned. "He hasn't done shit to you."

"I don't think you need to defend Kurama in his absence, but hey, whatever tickles your fancy." he replied, stretching out on the couch. Kay gave him a look of disgust and turned back to looking out the window. She looked down to the street, watching demons and tournament fighters scurry out of the rain beneath the dim street lights. One particular girl had been sitting by the light, immobile since the rain began. She didn't look up at anyone, didn't try to stay dry, just sat beneath the lights and stared at the ground.

"Whatcha lookin' at, Kay?" Mar-lo struck up another conversation. He looked out the window over her shoulder, seeing the girl below the lights.

"Nothing," she sniffed, looking at him. He shrugged and returned to laying on the couch. "Hey Yukina," he shouted, "are you guys done making the popcorn yet? You sure take your sweet time."

Silence. No smart remark from Alianore, no apology from Yukina. Silence.

"Yukina?" He tried again. Still no one answered him.

"Maybe she's finally learned to ignore you," Kay snickered, facing the window again. She looked for the emo girl beneath the street light, but she was gone now.

Mar-lo stuck his tongue out at Kay and hauled himself up off the couch and wandered into the kitchen. "Alia..." he chirped as if they were playing hide-and-go-seek, "where are you...Alianore...Yukiiiiina..." he opened the fridge, half expecting Yukina to be hiding in there. Of course, only TV dinners and a bottle of expired milk greeted him. No Yukina.

"That's weird," Kay said, confused. "Where'd they go? They couldn't have left without us seeing them...and there's no doors or windows from the kitchen..." she opened a cabinet below the sink. "Not in there." she mumbled.

"They're not in the kitchen, I guess," Mar-lo shrugged. "Let's try the bedrooms." Kay nodded, for once in agreement with her teammate, and headed for the bedrooms. She knocked on Ryu's door.

"Ryu?" she said in a loud whisper. "Have you seen Alia and Yukina? They're not out here!"

The handle on the door turned and Ryu opened it enough for Kay to see the wraith's angry red eye. "And you expect to find them in here?" she asked.

"No, I just thought--"

"No." The door closed.

Mar-lo raised an eyebrow. Kay shook her head. "They're not anywhere in here," he said. "And they didn't leave. Can Alia teleport and didn't tell us or something?"

"No, silly, she's a kitsune," Kay scoffed. "Foxes don't do that...they have to be here somewhere...I'll go check upstairs...you go downstairs...Ryu can just...sit and be emo."

"Sounds like a plan," he said, opening the door. "After you, onna," he said, bowing. Kay gave him a look before walking through and taking the elevator up to the next floor. A tall boy with an asteris on his forehead ran up and pressed the down button just as she got off.

"Have you seen a kitsune around here?" Kay asked him, wondering if maybe he had seen her teammates. "Tall, brown hair...black and brown tail...she was with a small girl in a minty green kimono...have you seen them? By the way, I'm Kay."

"Sorry, Kay," he smiled, extending his hand. "But I haven't seen your friends. By any chance have you seen a foul-mouthed blond girl running around? She escaped our room and I can't find her anywhere."

"Nope." Kay grinned back, shaking his hand. Even though she had pledged her life to marrying Yoko, she had to admit that this guy was cute.

The guy coughed uncomfortably, almost like he could hear her thinking aloud.

"I'm Ender," he said. "If by any chance you see our blond running around, let me know...our room's just down the hall...her name is Allie, in case you find her. Tell her I'm looking for her. And I'll keep an eye out for your friends." The elevator dinged and the doors opened.

"Thanks," she kept grinning, watching Ender get in the elevator. She shook her head. Now was not the time to be drooling over cute boys, after all, she still had to find not only Alianore and Yukina, but Kurama and Botan as well. "Gotta find them..." she muttered to herself, walking in the direction Ender had come in. She knocked on the first door she saw.

Toki Ukiya opened the door. Fear stabbed Kay in the heart and she slammed the door closed for her. She sprinted back to the elevator, pressing the up button over and over like a mad woman. Finally the elevator opened, revealing a crowd of tournament participants inside. She got inside, squeezing into the very back.

Two Goth demon girls stood in back with her. One with stunning white hair tapped Kay on the shoulder. "Um, excuse me," she said politely, pushing her brilliant hair behind one ear full of chain earrings. "Have you seen a girl around...short red hair...blue sweater...her name's Hotaru. We can't find her anywhere."

Kay shook her head. "No, I myself am looking for someone...two girls...they went missing about fifteen minutes ago."

"Hotaru ran off around an hour ago," one of the other Goths said. She didn't look at Kay, preferring to look at her friend instead.

The girl with white hair made a face. "I'm Kage," she said. "Hotaru's our team captain. This is Kurai-san."

"Nice to meet you." replied Kay. "I'm Kay."

Kurai nodded. "Come, Kage, we're not going to find our Hotaru on the elevator." she pushed her way to the front as the doors opened, pulling Kage by the hand.

--------------------

Always,

-S-chan-


	18. All you need is blood

**A/N:** I do not own YYH. 

-------

"Attention all fighters of this years tournament," Koto said calmly, appearing on a silver screen all across the tournament grounds. "A word from our King. _'Dear tournament participants: I apologize for the inconveniences that have occurred, but due to an unexpected interference all alternate fighters have now been selected as participants of the fights. A member from each team has been selected at random and placed beneath the surface of the ring, along with all alternate fighters of the tournament. As the fights on the surface progress, so will those underground. Each underground fight will determine the final points of each team, and in the end determine the winner of each round. The rules from previous rounds still apply, only the placement of the fights has changed. I look forward to a face off with the victors._ Signed, the King of demons."

Yusuke pressed the power button and the image from his TV flashed off. "I want to know who the hell thinks they can get away with this," he growled, slumping in his chair. Ayame placed a mug of coffee beside her King. "I don't know, my King. I'm sure they don't know what they've gotten themselves into."

"Damn right they don't know," he growled, snatching up the coffee from the desk. "A bunch of goddamn idiots who don't realize that they're committing treason against their goddamn King!"

Ayame agreed in silence and began to exit the room. On an impulse Yusuke changed her mind for her and hurled his coffee, mug and all, straight for her head. It crashed and shattered in several large ceramic pieces on the ground. Ayame dropped to her knees, consciousness swirling in circles around her head. Vaguely she saw her lord come and lift her from the ground, placing her gently on the desk.

"What are you doing to me...?" she whispered, trailing off as her voice began to leave her. The bright glint of a knife flashed in her vision before complete darkness overwhelmed her.

-

Hotaru's lip curled in disgust as she watched her former King slit young Ayame's neck and lick away the blood that ran. She didn't remember why she had ever been attracted to such a being, someone who sucked away the blood of beautiful young girls without a second thought as to the fact that it was morally WRONG. Why had she let someone so _vile_ touch her, what had she been _thinking? _She couldn't answer herself. All she could do was sit back and watch the repulsive scene before her. The King looked up halfway through his meal. A small smile emerged beneath the red gushing down his face. She looked away, not willing to meet his gaze.

"That's fricking gross, Yusuke." she finally mentioned. He offered her a drink of the blood. She waved him away.

"Why do you do this, anyway? Feed off of other people? It's disgusting!"

He didn't answer her, but instead tossed Ayame's body aside and began to lick the blood from his fingers. He looked down at her with his wide, not-so-innocent-anymore brown eyes. His tongue found the last red ribbon of blood on his own wrist and licked it off.

After an awkward pause, the King finally rested his hand on Hotaru's shoulder. She jerked away, wiping at the spot where he had laid his hand. "Don't ever touch me again," she hissed.  
Yusuke smirked. "Whatever you say." he walked back over to his desk and took his seat in the chair once again. "You'll come back on you're own, and I won't need to lift a finger."

Hotaru began to object, but he stopped her. "You can't resist a demonic bloodlust, Hotaru. If it's not satisfied with the simple shedding, then you must fill the desire by drinking it. You drank with me before. You've tasted blood..."

"Never." she said defiantly. "I never drank with you, and I never will!"

"Come to me, Hotaru-chan," he coaxed. He waved her over. Hotaru felt a pull on her heart, the feeling that said she still loved her King quite deeply. She felt herself draw in, soon close enough for him to reach out and pull her onto his lap. "Blood isn't as revolting as you make it sound," he murmured, stroking her brilliant red hair. She sat, mesmerized in her lover's gaze.

"No, blood is nasty," she whispered. The King silenced her with a kiss on the lips. Blood trickled inside her mouth from his lips.

A dark wave roared over her. Blackness swirled in her eyesight, red images flashing in Yusuke's face. A rusty, coppery taste drifted onto the back of her tongue. She remembered drinking-- did she drink? Did she drink the blood of others? Was her hunger so great that she denied ever committing this human atrocity? Was this the real Hotaru Aino, or some possessed being flesh and blood starved with a lust to overcome any obstacle?

Static rung in her ears, and she kissed her King again. The taste of liquid copper filled her mouth. She hated it.

But she couldn't pull away.

Yusuke grabbed his knife. He pressed it against Hotaru, a slight cut forming across her pale neck. She resisted in shock, but gave in as he put his face in her neck, his soft breathing tickling her face and his mouth licking away the blood. So distracting.

A faint click sounded in the corner, but it didn't even phase the two blood thirsty demons sitting in the King's chair.

"I never knew you were such a whore, Hotaru." came the stinging voice of Hiei. Hotaru's eyes fluttered open, glimpsing the fire demon as he pulled her away from the leech on her neck.  
She stammered a reply, but lost her words as she saw Yusuke wipe HER blood off his face. She put a hand to her neck. Her heart had slowed down incredibly.

"Get out," Hiei ordered her, glaring. She scurried from the room, stumbling over her own feet as bloodlust called to her again. She ignored it and ran for the elevator.

Yusuke sighed. "Do you need something?"

Hiei didn't answer him, but walked over to the glass window that overlooked the stadium.

"What's this tournament all about, Yusuke?" he asked. "if I didn't know better I'd say it was a trap. A trap for a specific girl to fall into."

"Yeah, about that." he said, making a face. "It seemed a lot better on paper. Somebody fucked up my plans." He spun around in his chair like an easily amused ten year old.

Hiei smirked. "I just wish I had been a part of it," he said. "Sadly, I wasn't informed. I think I have a pretty good guess as to who it was, though."

"Really? Want to share this information with me?" Yusuke asked in a dry voice.

"Not particularly." the fire demon answered him. "I think I'll keep that to myself." He moved to walk back to the door, but Yusuke caught his arm.

"Come on, Hiei, didn't your mother ever teach you to share?" the King of demons taunted him. "Share with me, Hiei."

Hiei's cold red eyes stared at him blankly. "If you really wanted to know you'd check your allies, and not your enemies. You and I aren't fighting on the same side anymore, detective." he released his arm from Yusuke's grasp and continued out the door.

"Does this mean we can't be friends any more?" the former detective joked. Hiei ignored him and vanished in a flicker of black. "Guess not." he shrugged. His eyes wandered over to Ayame's body. How many ferry girls was this now? Two? Three? Five? He'd lost track. They'd all become victims of the bloodlust, the strong bloodlust that had been fed for months by the hot headed demoness Hotaru. But she'd never caved.

What made her different, that she would survive? he mused. Hotaru was a strong girl. She was a demon. She was an ex-spirit detective. She had to be strong. No matter what.  
He looked down at the stadium, where Hiei had been standing only moments before.

-

Two fighters faced off on the sidelines of the ring.

"Kage of Team Kaleo, and Z of Team Hitokiri. And...fight!" giggled Chi, one of Kage's teammates. Her short bronze kitten tail flicked sideways. She brought her hand down, signaling the two to begin.

Z held up his hand. "Shake?" he proposed. Kage nodded, giving him her chalk white hand. A jolt went through Z's body and he fell back in surprise, a bit singed. Spirit energy crackled around Kage's elegant fingers.

"Did I do that?" Kage tittered. "I'm sorry. It must have slipped." she gently blew the smoke from her fingers.

"Come on, now, Kage," Chi pouted. "You're supposed to fight fair. Z's nice. Be nice to him"  
Kage rolled her eyes. "Fine," she growled, turning her attention back to Z. "OK, fox, let's make it a fair fight then. No weapons. No powers. No tricks."

Z nodded. He smiled sweetly, then kicked Kage in the back of the knees, knocking her forward a bit. Once she got close enough he pushed her down over his leg, which he wrapped around behind her knees. She fell back, catching herself with her hands on the ground.

"I see how it is," she said, grinning. She kicked Z in the ass, pushing him on top of her. He freaked out, his arms flailing wildly as he fell forward. Kage rolled out of the way as Z planted his face in the grass.

"You really suck at this." Chi winced for him. "I know we promised to help you, but I didn't think it was going to be this difficult." she tugged nervously at her ears.

"It's OK," he said into the grass. "I'm sure Ai will only rip off one of my legs if I lose." Kage laughed and sat up, rolling Z onto his back.

"Don't your own teammates want to help you?" she asked, adjusting her long white hair into a clip.

"No," Z grinned. "Ender and Allie are too consumed with each other. Ohime is completely aloof and doesn't talk to any of us except Ai, and Ai would probably laugh her ass off if she found out I even thought of getting help."

"So in other words your team sucks ass." Chi suggested, flopping down next to them. Her golden bobcat ears twitched back as someone approached the three from behind.

"Who's that you're with, Chi?" asked Kurai. "Did you find Hotaru?"

"No," Chi said, scrambling to her feet. "And it's just Kage. We were practicing for our next match..."

"Really." Kurai mused. "I could have sworn I heard a third voice around here." She turned, looking around. Her gaze fell across Z.

Z shivered and climbed to his feet, moving away from this indigo haired woman. Her eyes flicked up to meet his, and he backed away faster. Something about the milky film over her blue eyes struck fear in his heart.

"I thought I told you not to talk to strangers, Chi." Kurai said coolly. She moved forward, the long silver streaks on the side of her bangs moving softly in the breeze. "It's important that you don't speak to anyone. Is that clear?"

Chi opened her mouth in objection, and Kurai waited for one.

"It was my idea," Kage interrupted, slicing through the tension. "I brought him over here and asked him to help me before the fights. Chi had nothing to do with it." she moved around Kurai, reaching for her long indigo hair. She divided it into three pieces and began to braid it, softly whispering reassurances in Kurai's ear.

Kurai tugged her head away from Kage, her hair now in a long braid. "Come," she said to Chi, smiling gently. "Let us go back to the apartment and discuss our plans for tomorrow. Hotaru will return to us when she is ready, and we will wait for her there." she slipped her hand in the hand of her kitten's and led both her and Kage back towards the tournament hotel.

Kage watched Kurai sweet talk poor, innocent little Chi, and tried to stay back a bit to give them some space. Z fell from a tree branch above her head and landed quietly beside her.

"Who is that?" he questioned, tilting his head up.

"Kurai." she sighed deeply. "Really, she's only looking out for Chi. But she gets a bit... _obsessive_ in the process."

Z rolled his eyes up towards Kurai (who stood a full head taller than him). "No, I didn't notice." He scoffed and began to walk in the other direction.

"Hey!" she said, catching the sleeve of his T-shirt. "When are we gonna see you again?" Z plucked her long, pale fingers from his sleeve and replied with a smile,

"Later." He was gone before she could say anything else.

-

-s-chan-


	19. Out With a Bang

A/N: I do not own YYH.

A note: Kane, one of the alternate fighters, was changed from the killer for hire Kage to Kane, simply because well, I don't need two Kage's, and I already have two Akira's. Just trying to avoid some confusion.

And I apologize for not updating sooner.

-  
Ryu jumped out of the window, landing lightly on the ground below. She shot a look back at the open window before shrugging off an uncomfortable feeling and moving on. The heels of her black converse shoes scuffed the ground softly as she walked with a purpose towards the arena. Underground indeed. She knew exactly where these people were. Missing. HA. That was a laugh.

She continued, her face betraying her amusement as she walked right past Ender, who looked very lost in his search for his friend Allie. Ryu didn't pay any mind, however, and kept her eyes focused on one place and one place only: the King's VIP box.

Unfortunately for her, Ender did see her pass by and ran back to her to catch up. "Hey Ryu!" he called, matching her pace. "Have you seen Allie anywhere?"

"No." she kept walking, her eyes fixed on the box. Ender was quite aware that Ryu had zero desire to speak with him, look at him, or even breathe the same air as him, but he had to keep looking for Allie. "Are you sure? Because I've been looking all day, and I still haven't seen her, and she hasn't picked up her cell phone at all."

Ryu slowed and turned to face him. Her eyes locked on his before she said with a smile, "Why don't you just forget about your girlfriend? She's obviously avoiding you, and by now her skinny ass has probably been eaten alive or completely ravaged by some poor, starving demon."

Ender's concerned face turned rather quickly into a bewildered one. "So stop following me and go chase after some other little blond slut. I don't need you to tag along, because your powers don't work on me. You can't read my mind, and you don't know who I am. You're a goddamn fool without that thing." she poked the asteris on his forehead.

Ender was stunned. How could such a pissy attitude come out of someone so tiny? He pushed Ryu's hand away from his face. A smirk played at the corner of his mouth. "You really are just like her," he said.

It was Ryu's turn to be taken aback now. "Like who?" she played along, her voice filled with something like apathy and curiosity. "Raquel. You're just like her." he said, his voice as smooth as ever. For a second Ryu's stone features melted, allowing Ender to catch a glimpse of a thought.

_Toki stood beside Ai, giggling as she whispered into her ear. Ryu looked up from her hands, her face streaked with tears. Ai twirled, singing to herself in her raspy wraith voice._

_"Monster!" Ryu screamed at Ai. Toki looked over at Ryu, holding out her free hand._

_"Come on, Ryu, or there won't be anything left for you." she smiled, her teeth lined red with blood. Her hand reeked of blood and body fluids. Ryu screamed and backed away from her hand._

_"Get away from me!" she shrieked. "Monster!!!"_

_Ai stopped singing long enough to release Toki's hand and help poor, sobbing Ryu to her feet. She led her tearful younger sister to a full length mirror and pointed at her. "But Ryu," she smiled, "See? We're not monsters."_

_Ryu's eyes went wide as her sister became a hideous black cloud behind her, with slick, decaying hands and a repulsive stench coming from where her face had been seconds ago. Now it was a black hole, with two glowing crimson orbs and a gnashing, razor filled mouth. Even more to her horror was that she saw those same blackened, dead features in her own face. She looked at her hands, which were elongating at the fingers and growing old and rotten before her eyes._

_"You're just like us." Ai's raspy wraith voice hissed, spittle flying onto Ryu's shoulder. It burned as if she had been set on fire._

_"You're just like us."_

"I am not like any of them." Ryu said defiantly. She pivoted and began to walk angrily towards the king's VIP box, her temper flaring. She was nothing like Toki. She was nothing like Ai. She wasn't like Remei, and she most definitely wasn't like Raquel.

Ender knew he had struck a sensitive chord there. He chased after Ryu, calling out her name.  
Ryu ignored him. She reached the stairs that led to the VIP box. Her feet dissolved and she shot up the stairs in a flurry of black mist and acid spittle. She reappeared at the door as Ryu, calm and collected. The door handle twisted before she could reach for it and the door opened.

There he was. The King. King of Demons. Yusuke Urameshi, former spirit detective.

Yusuke quirked an eyebrow, his teenage features still present years after he should have left them behind. "Can I help you?" he inquired, leaning against the door frame.

"Sit down." Ryu said, her fingers shooting out and piercing his chest and right shoulder. She pushed him inside, letting her fingers push him into a nearby chair. They withdrew from his flesh, retracting into the normal hands she was used to.

"OK." he said, slightly confused. He didn't seem fazed by the eight holes suddenly adorning his chest. "What do you want?"

"Who invited the Ukiya's here?" Ryu demanded.

Yusuke shrugged. "I invited everyone who had the balls to come."

Ryu stormed over to the chair. "Why is Toki here? What did she do with Botan?" Another shrug.

"Fuck if I know. What's your problem, anyway? Got some kind of beef with this Toki lady? Oh I know. You're a Koenma supporter. You want me to stop the tournament. Well, it's not gonna happen. I'm sick of just sitting on my ass while the rest of the demon world gets to run around and do whatever the hell they want. If they're gonna live in my world and play my game, then they're gonna play by my rules. And some puny little emo chick isn't going to change that."

Ryu stared at him for a moment. This was her king. An arrogant, obnoxious teenage boy who thought he knew everything.

Ryu's jaw twisted into her horrible wraith mouth and her eyes glimmered brightly as she screeched in her high pitched wraith voice. Her hands wrapped around Yusuke's throat and clenched-- hard.

"You know nothing of me," she hissed in his ear. She spit in his face for an added effect. "Tell me why Toki Ukiya is here. Tell me why you lured the Masked Fighter here." her voice dropped to a ragged whisper. "If this is your game, then tell me-- who has the upper hand; you or Koenma?"

Yusuke's face betrayed nothing. "Get your hands off of me, weird ass little girl." he pried her rotting fingers away from his neck and hurled her against the wall. "I don't know what you're trying to play at, but the joke's over now. You can run back to your slutty little fox sister and your flesh eating stalker and get the fuck out of here. I don't need any little emo bitches whining at my feet anymore."

Ryu's rage flared. She lunged at him again, aiming her rows of teeth for his jugular. Yusuke pointed a finger at her. "Don't waste my time." he said, aiming. Ender ran in the doorway, seeing Ryu tackle the king and his finger point right into her stomach. Her mouth closed around his throat.

"No!" he yelled. "It's a trick, Ryu!" he ran forward, but was knocked back by a blinding flash of light as the king muttered two simple words:

_Spirit gun._

-

An explosion sounded in the arena. Every demon in the crowd turned to see what was happening. Bright blue light rose from the King's VIP box in a giant pillar of brilliance. Wind blew in torrents across the arena as the shockwave passed by.

"What the hell was that?" Shira shouted from her seat in the stands. She and the rest of Team TianLung Feng had been watching the practices of some of the other teams, before they had been disrupted by the catastrophe only two hundred feet away. She stood up, peering to get a closer look. She jumped over Maridonna's crossed legs and ran down to the stage to see what was going on.

"Wait, Shira!" Maridonna called, scrambling after her. Gasping for air, she sprinted after her captain, who had already made it halfway to the site of the explosion where already security demons were swarming together.

"What the hell's going on?" Shira asked one of the shadier looking security guards. He turned to her, his maroon bangs flopping into one deep red eye.

"Somebody pissed off the King." he shrugged. "It's not particularly uncommon."

"Who?" she asked, her curiosity obvious. She tied to look over his shoulder at the site, but he pushed his way into her line of vision.

"Sorry," he smiled deviously. "Can't let you in. King's policy. Don't piss him off even more!"

Maridonna arrived, finally catching up. "What happened?" she asked. Shira shrugged. The two watched as the guard Shira had spoken with climbed over some rubble to where the King himself stood, brushing dirt and stray cement crumbles off his shirt.

"There was a little wraith girl in there," somebody answered her. Maridonna turned to see a light violet skinned woman talking. She had to look up just to see her, because whoever this demoness was towered over her because she stood on two dragon legs, backwards joints and all. Two large wings spread out from her back in a dark purple cloud, with pointed sickles at the joints of each wing. A long tail curled from beneath her black dress, flicking from side to side. Maridonna's eyes trained on her tail for a minute as she scooted ever so slightly closer to Shira and away from the deadly looking spade on the end of the dragon demoness's tail.

"Really?" Shira asked dryly. "I'm sure Mar-lo would know something about that, now wouldn't he?" she turned to the dragon woman, extending her hand. "HI, I'm Shira. And you are...?"

"Terja," she smiled, taking Shira's hand. Terja's fingers felt long and icy to the touch. "And your friend..."

"Maridonna." she introduced herself quickly. "I'm Maridonna."

"Nice to meet you," Terja said politely. "I'm assuming that you two know of the wraith girl who managed to get on the king's bad side."

"You could say that," Shira muttered. "Well, we don't really know her...it's more of an awkward relationship we have with her team. That is, assuming it's the same girl I'm thinking of."

"Someone from Ukishima." Terja said absentmindedly, watching with lazy golden eyes as the security demons scrambled to keep the crowd away. "I knew it." Shira chuckled. "Bunch of dumbasses on that team..."

Terja ran a clawed hand through her flaming red hair. "Why do you say that?"

Maridonna giggled into her palm and watched with curiosity as the demons pushed back a fighter who seemed determined to move past the wreckage and get to the wraith. "Who's that?" she asked, completely forgetting that Terja had asked a question before her.

"Akira Fugishima," Terja sighed, straightening her posture. "Excuse me."

Maridonna and Shira watched as Terja picked her way across the rubble and approached the Fugishima alpha wolf. Shira stared at the two for a second before grabbing Maridonna's hand and following. "Come on," she whispered, excitement escaping into her tone. "Let's see what happens."

Terja stood beside Akira, who was just as obnoxiously tall as her. Akira's yellow wolf eyes flashed angrily and he bared his teeth at one of the guards, who took a step back in cowardice. He moved forward with a smirk, knocking the guard off balance as he shouldered his way to where the VIP box had been standing only ten minutes ago. Terja followed, folding her wings.

-

Ender rubbed his temples as he opened his eyes. What had happened?

Ryu's angry face flashed in his mind, and a flood of memory followed. Oh yeah. There had been an explosion, hadn't there?

He sat up, looking around. Thankfully the door had provided some protection and taken the blunt of the damage. A long scrape ran down his chest and he was dirtied and bruised, but otherwise seemed fine.

Well, fine until he saw Akira and Terja sauntering towards him. _Don't panic._ he told himself. _They probably were looking for somebody else._

But it didn't seem like they were heading anywhere else, and no one else was around. It was definitely him they were after.

Ender hurried to his feet, and felt a jab of pain in his left knee. He stood up as straight as he found possible to make himself taller. Despite his effort, he was only eye level with Terja's chin.

Once she was close enough, Terja grabbed hold of Ender's chin and jerked his face close to hers. "What were you doing?" she asked, her voice unwavering.

"Nothing," he told her, prying Terja's violet fingers from his skin. "I followed little Ryu here while I was looking for Allie."

"Don't bother," the dragon said. "Allie is gone for the remainder of the tournament. She's been put into the lower levels. You'll never find her."

Confusion covered Ender like a thick blanket. "What? You mean Koenma took her?" Terja nodded. "Crap."

Akira quirked an eyebrow. "Any reason you're so worried?"

Ender shook his head. "Nah, I'm fine. It's just that from what I've been hearing, Hotaru Ikuhara's been moved down there. How bad would that suck if Allie had to fight her by herself?"

"I don't think I've ever seen Hotaru fight," Terja mused. "She's not much of a fighter, Ender. Hotaru is the king's bitch."

"But she's also an ex-spirit detective." Akira pointed out.

"Besides," Ender jumped back in, "We were stupid enough not to have chosen an alternate. Allie will have to fight two against one."

"Dumbass." Akira scoffed. "I'd try to help you, but this is a tournament, and your team is the competition."

"I understand. Thanks anyway." Ender breathed a sigh of relief that no physical harm had come to him just yet.

"Ladies and gentlemen!" Koto's voice came over the intercom. "Our king has made a change of plans-- get ready, because the first underground fight starts in twenty minutes! Each fight will be displayed on the scoreboard, so watch for your team members!" Koto's face flashed across the scoreboard as she waved goodbye. The lineup for the teams flickered onscreen.

_Team Fugishima vs. Team TianLung Feng_

_Team Kaleo vs. Team Reform_

_Team Hitokiri vs. Team Ukishima_

_Team TC vs. Team Kono_

-----------------

Always, -S-chan-

Team Kaleo: full

1. Chi Koen Koe

2. Kurai Momoko

3. Kage Kancho

4. Hotaru Ikuhara (moved underground)

5. Renee Alternate: Miyuki Fugishima (moved underground)

Team Hitokiri: full.

1. Ai Satsugikitsune

2. Allie (moved underground)

3. Ender

4. Z Kaitah

5. Ohime Yakusoku

Alternate:

Team Reform: full

1. Kurama

2. Hiei

3. Kuwabara

4. Yukina (moved underground)

5. Terja

Alternate: Naomi Vasque (moved underground)

Team Fugishima: full

1. Akira Fugishima

2. LanLan

3. Fyrea

4. Nikoji

5. Kageryu Jaganshi (moved underground)

Alternate: Kane (moved underground)

Team TianLung Feng: full

1. Shira Trusea

2. Thomas Maximillian (moved underground)

3. Maridona Nightshade

4. Toki Ukiya

5. Akira Trusea

Alternate: Raquel Ukiya (moved underground)

Team TC:

1. Kayla (aka Rei) Okudo

2.

3.

4.

5.

Alternate:

Team Kono:

1. Zyke Kono

2. Hali Kono

3.

4.

5.

Alternate:


	20. Underground

_Team Fugishima vs. Team TianLung Feng _

_Team Kaleo vs. Team Reform _

_Team Hitokiri vs. Team Ukishima _

_Team TC vs. Team Kono_

**A/N: **Hey, sorry for the EXTREMELY long wait. So I realize that my character, Viper, is very much so a pain in the ass to read the dialougue for. And I apologize. Oh, and if you're a member of Team Kaleo, I'd like some more information on your characters simply for the next chapter...because guess what...I have the TIME to write now! HOLY SHIT!

---------

Thomas stood by the sidelines of the underground arena. It was quite different then the stage overhead. This arena had a raised black rectangular platform, anchored to the ceiling by heavy chain links. Thick spikes rose and faced inward from each corner of the stage, looming ominously. The lighting overhead was dimmer, with a greenish hue to it, casting a creepy feeling over the entire stadium. He had been waiting for almost a half an hour now, looking for Toki's sister Raquel Ukiya, the alternate fighter to Team TianLung Feng.

Finally a woman with copper hair glided into view. She stood with the same arrogant and defiant air as her sister Toki, and walked with a confidence that told Thomas that this fight was in the bag. She strode right up to him, long black trench coat flapping around her.

"Thomas?" she asked, golden eyes wide. He nodded, breath taken by her beauty. Unlike her sister Toki, who you knew on sight was nothing more than a reanimated corpse, Raquel shone with a life that simply wasn't possible for her wraith counterparts. She radiated life, beauty, and everything Toki didn't.

"Yeah," he answered after a pause. "Yeah, I'm Thomas. You're Raquel?"

She nodded, and took off her large coat, pushing it into his arms. "Take care of that," she ordered him in the same bitchy tone that belonged to her sister. Yes, they were definitely related. "We need to get onto the stage before the announcer chick comes out and calls us up there. It looks better on our team's part if we get up there before we're forced, and we'll get a chance to glimpse where we'll be fighting." She turned, walking towards the stairs that led up to the raised platform where they would be fighting.

Thomas stared after Raquel, closing his mouth, which had been slightly agape. Raquel was a tanned, well toned demoness, where her sister, well, looked like a dead chick. How they were sisters, he didn't know. They were completely opposite in appearance.

"Catch up, shortie," Raquel called behind her. "I have no problem leaving you down there, but you might want to get your ass up here if you ever want a shot at the king."

Thomas sighed, jogging after her. He took the stairs two at a time, reaching the platform fairly quickly. Once he was there, he stood beside the gorgeous Raquel to survey the surroundings they would be fighting in. The spikes that seemed large before towered even higher now, reaching almost to the ceiling where the chains were melded into the floor of the stadium above.

"We still have time," Thomas told her, "we don't have to be up here just yet."

Raquel hit him in the arm. "Shut up," she snapped. She nudged him, pointing him to their left. "Look. I think that's the announcer."

A young girl reached the top of the stairs where Raquel had just pointed. She was gasping for breath, and collapsed on the ground as soon as she reached the top step. "JESSSUSSS CHRISSST!" she screamed out. "Why do the damn ssstairs have to be ssso time consssuming?!"

Thomas quirked an eyebrow. She couldn't be any more than 16. How was she the new announcer?

The girl stood, brushing herself off. She ran a hand quickly through her short, fluffy black hair, random tufts of bright red placed sporadically about her head. She hissed loudly, a light pink, thin tongue flicking out between two very pointy eye teeth. She pursed her lips, which she had glossed over with deep red lipstick.

"Are you the announcer?" Thomas asked incredulously.

"Yesss," she answered, tongue flicking out. She moved closer, and began twirling a microphone around by the string attached to the bottom. "I'm the announther for the underground tournament. Why?"

Raquel stifled a snort. The little demon girl turned, her slitted pupils opening wide in anger. "You making fun of me? You got a problem? WELL?!"

"You have a slight lisp, darling," she informed her.

The short demon twitched. "I DO NOT HAVE A MOTHERFUCKING LISSSP!" she screeched loudly. Her little body was heaving in rage, practically falling on the ground from her sudden spastic spurts of anger. Thomas laid a hand on her shoulder. "What?" she snapped, glaring evilly at his hand.

"Chill out," he advised. "Look, it's time to start. Call the other team, and we'll get this over with. Then you can fight with Raquel all you want about your lisp."

"I do not have a lisssp," she growled, but whipped her microphone out and marched to center stage. A spotlight came down on the tiny ball of boiling rage, illuminating her entire body. She was a nothing more than a young teenage demon. She looked like an enraged gothic snake, body curling, slick snake scales covering her body, receding only into the smooth ivory skin of her face. She was dressed in plain black clothes-- T-shirt, jeans with red stitching, and a pair of lace-up leather boots. "Ladiesss and gentlemen," she said in a surprisingly loud voice. "I'm Venice, your underground announther. The king hasss employed me to determine the outcome of each below the sssurface fight as I sssee fit. Ssso if you want to win," she looked at Raquel pointedly, "don't pisssss off the announther! The rulesss for these fightsss are sssimple. Each team hasss a maximum of two fightersss. Each fight will consssissst of both members, if both are presssent, fighting a member of the other team, asssssuming both opposssing membersss are presssent asss well. The pairsss are chosssen at random, and each fighter that fallsss for a total of ten sssecondsss sssustains a losssss, for a maximum total of two losssssesss per team. Whichever team hasss the mossst amount of losssssesss will be disssqualified. Now that we've got all that out of the way, let's introduthe our fightersss!"

The opposing team had seemingly climbed the other set of stairs unnoticed, and now stood on the opposite end of the platform. "Introduthing Kageryu and Kane, from Team Fugissshima, and Thomasss and Raquel, from Team TianLung Feng! Each team had both a regissstered alternate fighter, and thusss the match will be two on two! The fights that have been selected are Thomas vs. Kageryu, and Raquel vs. Kane!" Venice looked to both teams. "FIGHT!" she backed out of the way, taking an observant stance on the side of the platform.

Kane moved forward, Kageryu by his side. The two faced Thomas and Raquel head on, mere feet away now.

Raquel smirked. "Don't worry, Thomas. This fight is all ours."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that," Kageryu countered. "I spent the longest time down here, and I think I know it better than the two of you do. Besides," she snickered. "you're just a bunch of losers that are gonna eat shit in the end."

Kane darted forward, grabbing Raquel by the arm and flipping her over onto her back. He stamped his foot down on his chest, and she let out a ragged cough.

"Kane hasss Raquel pinned!" Venice observed, tapping her finger on her chin thoughtfully. "Thisss fight may be over before it even ssstartsss!"

"It isn't over yet," muttered Thomas. He ran up behind Kane, kicking him hard in the back of the knee. Kane's knee buckled, weakening his hold on Raquel. She grabbed his leg, throwing him over her head and sending him face first into the concrete floor. Thomas yelped-- suddenly an arrow pulsing with a dark energy was protruding angrily from his shoulder.

Kageryu looked over her bow triumphantly. "You'll never be able to catch Kane," she bragged. "And you'll never reach me." she took off in the direction of the nearest spike rising from the floor. Thomas took off running after her. The short jaganshi demoness clambered her way up the spike the moment she was close enough, making her way higher and higher.

"And Kageryu ssseemsss to have pulled a ssspiderman, ssshimmying up the sssickeled ssspike like a tree in the backyard!"

"You'll never make it up here," Kageryu laughed down at the struggling Thomas. "I'm the only one who can make it up here-- the surface is far too slick for anyone else!" she strung her bow again, the arrow inflaming with demonic energy. "It's time to die, Thomas Maximillian!" she cackled. The arrow flew, a steady stream following after.

"Holy shit!" Thomas yelped, squirming to dodge the barrage of demonic fire and raining arrows. He hit the ground as his sleeve caught fire, slapping senselessly at his good shoulder to put the fire out.

"Demon fire can't be put out!" Kageryu informed him, laughing hysterically. "And your friend doesn't look like she's having much luck either!"

Thomas chanced a look in Raquel's direction. The beautiful woman had been practically beat to shit in a manner of minutes-- her face was bruised, her body battered and broken. Kane was tossing her around like a rag doll. "Fuck," he uttered, still making an effort to put out the worst of the black flames. "'In the bag!' she said. OK. Whatever you say."

"And now I'm gonna finish you too," Kageryu said lightheartedly. "Shadow dragon!"she thrust her arm out, her sleeve evaporating. Violet flames shot from her fingertips, five vicious dragons searching for the heat signature of their next meal. Twisting and writhing, the flaming dragons glided along the stadium, singeing the floor as they made their way towards Thomas.

The bard's eyes widened in fear, dragging him to his feet and sending him flying in the other direction towards Kane and Raquel. He felt the heat of the dragons gaining on him, his heels blistering and his ears splitting from the deafening roar of Kageryu's attacking beasties. He dropped to the ground, rolling dangerously close to the edge of the platform. But the dragons were so close now he would have to jump off the platform or be obliterated.

Kane looked up in time to see Kageryu's attack running rampant, violently swarming and searching for the prey they seemed to have lost. They turned their attention to Kane and Raquel, plunging forward for the kill.

Kageryu continued to laugh as her attack ravaged her own teammate. The dragons screeched wildly, stripping Kane down until he was nothing more than a smoking skeleton. Raquel's own corpse lay next to him, charred flesh.

Venice lay in a heap on the floor, her arms covering her head. She opened an eye, looking out into the crowd. Seeing that the fight was over, she stood, attempting to compose herself. "Well then," she coughed into the mike. "Ladiesss and gentlemen, I think we have a winner!" she turned to Kageryu, who had since come back down to the floor from her airborne post. "Kageryu is the only sssurvivor of the firssst underground fight, so Team Fugissshi--"

"Hold it!" came a voice. Venice twirled on one heel to find Thomas crawling up from the ledge of the platform, the lower half of his body still hanging off. "It's not over yet."

"Well, if you don't get your asssss in the ring in the next eight sssecondsss, it WILL be over!" Venice informed him, eyeing the redhead suspiciously.

"No!" Kageryu protested, elbowing Venice out of the way. "This fight is mine! I finished you!" she stomped towards Thomas, shadows wrapping around her fists as her temper flared. Venice fell onto the ground, mike rolling out of her hand.

Thomas saw the angry little jaganshi headed for him, and swung one leg up. He had almost made it fully onto the platform when Kageryu reached him and kicked him in the abdomen, sending him back over the edge. Clinging by his fingertips, he looked up in time to see Kageryu stamp her foot down on his fingers, which cracked loudly. He let go, shrieking.

"Thomasss is only hanging on by a sssingle hand now!" Venice yelled, retrieving her mike.

"It's OVER!" Kageryu shrieked, bringing her foot down one last time. Her boot hit Thomas's fingers, but his cry was drowned out by a deafening shriek from behind Kageryu. Thomas dropped out of view, and Kageryu turned in time to see a huge, smoking black cloud rise up and billow to enormous proportions.

"What the fuck?" Kageryu breathed, voice filled with fear. She tried backing away, but her heels reached the edge, and there was nowhere to go. The cloud swooped down low, less than a foot from her face. Ferocious scarlet eyes sparkling with bloodlust pierced her, sending waves of cold through her entire body. An angry mouth with rows of gnashing, snarling razor blade teeth smiled, before opening wide and shrieking in her face. Her hair whipped wildly in the wind, and she shut her eyes tight. She could feel the rancid spittle flying, landing on her face and arms. The acid saliva burned, eating away at her flesh. She opened her eyes to see a blackened abyss, the belly of hell, within the monster's mouth.

She didn't even have the time to react before the wraith had swallowed her whole, a roar resounding from the shock wave it sent into the crowd. The wraith screamed, blood pouring from its wide open mouth. It turned its blood-happy gaze towards Venice, but the black shadows began to dissipate, a thick cloud of black smoke clearing and thinning out into the air, revealing the beautiful Raquel beneath its grotesque smoky body. She stood tall, her straight copper hair blowing softly in the wind.

Venice cocked her head. "Holy ssshit," her pink tongue hissed. "Well, ladiesss and gentlemen, it looksss like Raquel isss the only one ssstanding now. We'll go to a ten count jussst to be sssure." A large silver screen lit up above the crowd. A countdown began, flashing brilliantly in bright red numbers.

"And that'sss a ten! Raquel'sss team, Team TianLung Feng, is the firssst victor of the underground fightsss! Team TianLung Feng hasss acquired a sssingle losssss, while Team Fugissshima has sssussstained two losssssesss-- which meansss their team isss automatically disssqualified!"

-------------

Fyrea and LanLan stared in disbelief at the silver screen. The entire Fugishima team had assembled to watch their fighters go at it underground, and they ended up being disqualified!

"What the fuck?" Fyrea pouted. "You mean our shot at Yusuke is over? We're done?"

"Yes, unfortunately," LanLan growled, her mood quickly growing pissy. "We've been disqualified. This is bullshit. We haven't even gotten a real chance to fight." she looked to Akira, who sat with a stern look of concentration on his face. "Can't you do something about this? Isn't there someone you can talk to? I mean, come on-- this isn't fair!"

Akira shook his head. "I'm afraid there's really nothing I can do now. That was it. That's the end for us."

"You can't be serious," Nikoji started, sitting up to face everyone. He had been laying back in his seat, lounging like the lazy cat he was.

LanLan threw her hands up in exasperation. "You mean all the fights are determined like this?"

"No," Akira shook his head, his thick grey wolf ears pinned back, "if you were listening to the little snake demoness, she said that if you suffer both losses in the underground fights, you're disqualified. It's one on one fights. Technically, there should be two victors per fight. However, in cases like this, there seem to be exceptions. Kageryu killed Kane on accident because he was simply in the way, and Raquel killed Kageryu because she is a wraith who will consume every living thing in sight. Which left us with two losses, and TianLung Feng with one. Which means their team will move on to a further surface fight, and Raquel will move on to the second round of underground fights."

"I still don't think it's fair," said Fyrea, sticking out her lower lip.

"So what now?" Nikoji asked, his cat eyes closing sleepily. "Do we just go home?"

"I kind of want to stay to see the turnout," Akira mused, his ears swiveling to their normal position. "Besides, I don't think there really is any way to get home before the boat goes back. I'd like to see the king fight. So I think I'm going to stick around, but the rest of you are free to go. We've been disqualified, so there's no point in us wandering around as a team any more."

"Kitten, you'll stay with me, won't you?" Fyrea turned her sad face to Nikoji, batting her lashes at him. He shrugged. She grinned, flopping down onto his lap. "Come now, kitten, let's go find some fun people and we'll go stay with them for a bit." Nikoji glared at her through half open eyes, but didn't protest too much as she jumped up and dragged him through the crowd.

"What about you?" Akira asked LanLan. "What will you do?"

LanLan stared out at the screen, fury still scrawled across her face. "I don't know. I'll probably go underground and watch the fights there, if that's all right." She didn't wait for his response, but shoved her way past him and disappeared in the sea of demons.

"All right, ladies and gentlemen," said Koto, drawing everyone's attention. "The first underground victor has been determined. Thank you, Venice, for your amazing commentary." Venice was displayed on the screen, and she nodded to Koto. "Of course, the fights on the surface will continue as normal. So our next fight will be Team Kaleo vs. Team Reform! Fighters, you have ten minutes to get to the arena and fight out this battle!"

-----------------

Always, S-chan


	21. Kuwabara vs Chi Koen Koe

_Team Kaleo vs. Team Reform _

_Team Hitokiri vs. team Ukishima _

_Team T.C. vs. Team Kono_

_-------------_

Kurai waited patiently for Chi to run and catch up. "Come on, darling Chi, we don't have all the time in the world. You're slowing everyone down."

"Sorry, Kurai," Chi apologized, jogging to catch up.

"Don't fall behind any more, all right?" she said, smiling. Chi nodded, following Kurai and Kage to the arena. The three climbed up onto the stage, meeting up with their fourth member, Renee.

The entire stadium shook as the crowd screamed, booing and calling for blood as Team Reform walked onstage. They were led by a tall, giddy man with carrot orange hair that waved to everyone who was screaming for his head.

"Is that...?" Chi paled, touching Kage's elbow.

"It is," Kage's eyebrow's disappeared into her bangs. "Holy shit!"

Kurai didn't seem fazed by the infamy of their opponents. She smirked as one man stepped forward. "I'm Kurama," he introduced, making a polite bow. "It is an honor to fight against such worthy opponents. I have heard many stories about you, Kage Kancho-san."

Kurai's steely gaze did not falter, even though she was quite taken aback that Kurama's remark was to Kage, and not herself. She had not been expecting that.

Kage's cheeks flushed pink. "Thank you," she said, feeling awkward.

"Shall we begin the fight?" Kurai suggested icily. She snapped her fingers, and Chi stepped forward. "Which one of your fighters has the guts to fight my Chi?" she asked, her milky eyes surveying their team.

Kurama looked back. "I'm sure someone would love to take you up on that," he smiled, walking back to his team.

Koto stood in confusion, waiting in the center with a quizzical look on her face.

Kurai motioned for Kage and Renee to wait on the sidelines. The three of them walked back, stepping out of the arena. Chi was left alone, standing and waiting for Team Reform's decision.

"And Team Reform has chosen Kuwabara for their first match!" Koto announced, watching the orange haired man walk up to meet with the tiny bobcat girl. Kuwabara had a much more powerful air about him then he had when he had participated in the Dark Tournament. He was definitely older, and because he was only a human his age showed more than the demon's on his team. "The teams have each selected their fighters! The first match will be Kazuma Kuwabara from Team Reform versus Chi Koen Koe from Team Kaleo! Ready? Fight!"

Chi took an immediate defensive stance, raising her arms up to block any fast attack Kuwabara might make.

------------

"That doesn't make any sense," Koenma said, another piece of popcorn missing his toddler mouth and rolling onto the floor. "In as long as I've known Kuwabara, he's never fought with girls. Or girls that are cute and fuzzy little kittens."

"Maybe he's had a change of heart," George suggested, picking up the popcorn Koenma dropped and trying to eat it inconspicuously. "It's happened. I mean, look at Yusuke. He's evil."

"Yusuke isn't evil, you misguided oaf," Koenma yelled. "And don't eat my popcorn!"

"Sorry sir," he apologized. Koenma cleared his throat, watching the screen he had in his office in the underground stadium. Chi and Kuwabara hadn't made a move yet.

"There's got to be some reason behind the whole Yusuke fiasco. That's why we're here, ogre, we're going to find out. This is it. Once these petty little fights are out of the way, we get down to the nitty gritty."

"Nitty gritty, sir?"

"Yes, ogre. In all seriousness, once there is one team remaining, Yusuke is going to come out and fight them. And once he's taken out four of five fighters, the last participant standing has a number of choices. We need to make sure that none of the power hungry psycho's are that last fighter. The last fighter standing will literally be holding the fate of the demon world in his hands. He can either step down, walking away with his life in tact, leaving Yusuke as the King of Demons. Or he can fight Yusuke until one of them is dead, fighting for the title of King. If Yusuke feels they are a worthy opponent, he may simply just hand over his title without the loss of a life. There are many ways this could end. But what we need to do is make sure that we haven't put another crazy in a position of power."

"So you're looking for the next king? Koenma, sir, I think that's sort of like cheating."

"Shut up, ogre, it's not cheating!" Koenma hit George with a handful of popcorn. "It's only cheating if Yusuke finds out. Besides, it's not like I set ALL the fights up. This is the demonic world. The rules are much different, and much more flexible here."

"But won't Yusuke find out?"

Koenma shrugged. "I don't know. He could, and then might come down here the instant he finds out. Or he just won't care and will stay up there where he can watch out for any real competition."

George frowned, watching the screen as Chi and Kuwabara were finally getting somewhere. Chi had gone on the offensive, covering Kuwabara with claw marks before he had a chance to draw his spiritual sword. "Is there any competition for Yusuke at all? He was your most powerful spirit detective, and he did win lots of fights against demons that were much more powerful than he was at the time. And he's only gotten stronger!"

"Yes I'm quite aware of that, ogre." Koenma's attention turned to the screen. "I sincerely doubt that anyone here is any REAL match for our favorite ex-detective. The only ones who might even be able to hold their own are Hotaru, the Ukiya's, and Team Reform. Of course, there may be others who we just haven't witnessed the potential of yet."

"I'd put my money on him," George said, pointing to the security camera screens.

"Who?" Koenma demanded, hopping from his chair. He scuttled over to the security feed, looking at the camera where George was pointing. _"Him??!_ What on earth for?!" the little masked fighter stood by himself, leaning against a railing at the top of the stadium, the fighter ogre had put his faith in.

"I have a weird feeling about him," George said.

Koenma stared incredulously. "And that's what you're going on? A weird feeling?"

George nodded. "Yes."

"You're retarded."

George folded his arms. "Well, then who do you think is going to be the last one standing?"

Koenma pondered for a moment, going back to his chair and his popcorn. "I think it'll be Hotaru. She's the only one who's ever withstood the full force of Yusuke's pissy adittude, and I'd bet my money on her reaching the final round."

George slammed his hands down on the table. "You're on, Koenma sir!"

Koenma grasped his popcorn, totally bewildered. "On for what?"

George pointed back to the security feed. "I bet you that the masked fighter will be the last fighter standing in the final round."

Koenma furrowed his eyebrows, chewing thoughtfully on his popcorn. "All right, ogre," he said finally. "I'll take you up on your bet. I'll bet you that Hotaru is the last one to face Yusuke. If you win, I'll let you sit in my chair and I'll do your paperwork for a day. If I win, I get to dress you up in pretty pink clothes and hand you over to Botan and Yukina, and you're going to do your paperwork, plus mine."

"Only one day? A week. And if I win, I'll put you in a frilly dress too."

"Two days."

"Four."

"Three, and that's it." Koenma settled. George bit his lip, but stuck out his hand and shook Koenma's. "You're on."

------------------

"It looks like Chi and Kuwabara are at a standstill!" Koto observed, a finger tapping on her chin. "It doesn't seem like this fight will be over any time soon!"

Chi took a deep breath. She heard Kage and Renee cheering her on from the sidelines, shouting their encouragement.

Kuwabara withdrew his sword. "I don't hurt girls," he said, abiding by his famous code of honor. "But since I have to fight you, we're gonna do this fairly. Hand to hand. No demon tricks. No spirit energy." he held up two fists, waiting for Chi's response.

Chi studied Kuwabara carefully. "All right," she said, retracting her sharpened claws. "Hand to hand. No tricks. No spirit energy."

"Well it seems that Kuwabara and Chi have come to a mutual agreement for a close combat match! No telling how this one will turn out. Will it be Kuwabara's brute strength, or Chi's lightning fast moves that earn a win?"

"C'mon, Chi! Knock him out!" Kage screamed from the sidelines, her hands cupped around her mouth. Kurai glared at her.

"Kage, please. Keep your spastic tendencies to yourself." she scolded. Kage looked down at Kurai, and hung her head slightly. She smiled apologetically, but Kurai simply turned her attention back to Chi and Kuwabara.

Chi vanished, leaving Kuwabara glancing around quickly for where she might reappear. She appeared behind him, kicking his legs out from under him and bringing him down to the ground. She grabbed him, twisting him into a headlock and slamming him face first into the scuffed arena floor. "Not such a tough guy, are you?" she hissed loudly, her bobcat ears pinned back.

Kuwabara broke free of her hold, sending her landing lightly on all fours some distance away. She stood, her tail flicking angrily. She licked a scrape on her knuckle with her tiny kitten tongue. "I'm not going to make this easy for you," she snarled.

"Good, cause I'd be really disappointed if you did!" he shouted, smiling. He ran forwards, raising a fist. Chi raised her arms to block, waiting. Kuwabara made his approach, decking Chi on the left side of her jaw. She dropped like a sack of potatoes, but sprung back up in no time to hook her opponent in the jaw, sending him falling backwards.

"It looks like little Chi packs quite a punch behind that fuzzy kitten exterior!" Koto shouted.

Kuwabara went to stand up, but Chi stamped down hard on his chest. "Stay down!" she growled. Kuwabara chuckled, grabbing her leg and flinging her into the ground behind him.

"Watch out, kitty," he warned, half jokingly.

Chi glared, her green eyes glittering with anger. "I'm not a KITTEN!" she screamed, lunging for the large carrot haired man. She knocked him down, rolling him onto his back. She pinned him, holding his arms behind his back at such an awkward angle they were almost at their snapping point.

"Start the ten count!" Koto said, turning to the screen. The large, shining red numbers flashed on the screen, counting down.

Kuwabara broke one of his arms free, but Chi nailed him in the face with another well placed punch. "This is my fight!" she scowled. "Kurai's always knocking me down and telling me what a terrible fighter I am! And now I'm gonna prove to her that I can beat anyone that stands in my way, no matter how famous they are!"

"And that's a ten!" Koto announced. "Team Reform has sustained a loss, and Team Kaleo takes their first victory! Would the next fighters please step up to the plate and we'll get this show on the road!"

Chi clambered up off Kuwabara, brushing herself off furiously. Kuwabara stood up, rubbing his face. "I'm gonna have a lot of bruises in the morning," he groaned. He turned to Chi, who was already making her way back to Kage, who had climbed up into the arena to congratulate her teammate. "Hey!" he called after her. Kage looked at him curiously. Chi turned around, her temper flaring.

"What?" she snapped, staring at him.

He held out his hand. "Good match," he said. Chi stared at his hand, her anger deflating. She turned back, walking slowly towards him. She twitched slightly as she held out her own hand gingerly. Kuwabara shook her hand firmly, smiling. Then he turned around and walked back to his team.

Chi turned around quickly, looking to Kage, who stood just as confused, if not more so. Tears filled Chi's big, wide eyes. She walked slowly to Kage, looking up at her. Kage smiled, holding out her arm to Chi. Chi took her friend's arm obediently, walking back to Kurai and Renee with her.

"Can we get with the program, people?" Koto urged, tapping her foot impatiently.

_"Yeah, let's get moving with the bloodshed!"_ demons in the crowd screamed.

_"We wanna see blood!"_

"They want blood, do they?" Kurai smiled. "Well then. Ill give them blood." she ruffled Chi's hair, smiling gently at her before leaping gracefully into the arena.

"And Kurai has stepped up to the plate! Who will Team Reform choose to send to fight her?"

Kurama stepped forward. "I'll gladly take you on, Kurai-san." he said, smiling that dazzling grin that made fan girls swoon at the sight of him.

"Kurama has been sent into the arena! From previous matches, we know that Kurama has given many a powerful demon a run for their money. But with a new challenger up to bat, will he be able to take down this newcomer just as easily? I guess we'll find out! Team Reform's Kurama versus Kurai Momoko of Team Kaleo-- GO!"

---------------

**A/N:** Hey guys, thought I'd give you a short preview into the next chapter! (Which will be up really soon)

Kurama and the mysterious Kurai are fighting in the upcoming match, and the whole audience is calling for someone, ANYONE'S blood! Kurai says she can give the crowd what they want-- but what does she have up her sleeve? Turns out this girl is hiding more than we think, but can she take down the infamous Yoko Kurama? Find out in the next chapter!  
--------------

always, s-chan


	22. Yoko Kurama vs Kurai Momoko

**A/N:** For those of you who have seen the entire series, part of this fight has been based off of attacks I have seen Yoko perform in past episodes. One of them, the red wing things, which I forget the name of, are from the Sensui period, and if you haven't seen the episodes, you should. They're interesting.  
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Team Kaleo vs. Team Reform

Team Hitokiri vs. Team Ukishima

Team T.C. vs. Team Kono

-------------

Kurama stood strong, surveying Kurai carefully. He had to watch out for this demoness; something told him that she wouldn't go down quite as easily as some of the other demons he'd taken down in his time.

"If you're thinking that I'm going to give up, Kurama," she sounded calm, smiling. "You've got another thing coming. But I'm looking forward to our fight. It's been a while since I've seen someone who can match my skills."

On the sidelines, Terja and Hiei looked on with something close to wariness. "I don't like her," Terja commented to the fire apparition.

"Kurama can handle himself." Hiei told her, assurance in his tone.

Kurama smiled. "And I look forward to our match as well, Kurai. I myself like the occasional challenge."

"Then let this fight be one to remember," she said, blinking slowly. When her lids lifted, her eyes glowed with a phosphorescent yellow, brilliant against her drab, pale skin. The wind speed picked up, gusts violently swirling around the stadium.

Kurama shielded his eyes against the wind, his red hair whipping in the winds that only blew harder, sending smaller demons running for cover and larger demons jumping to catch lost items that had blown away in the sudden wind storm.

"What's wrong, Kurama?" Kurai's voice carried across the storm. "Can't handle a little breeze?"

Plant vines wrapped around Kurama's feet, branching off and taking root in the floor, holding him down so he wouldn't blow away like some unfortunate apparitions had already done. Kurai chuckled softly. Storm clouds began to gather, black clouds that threatened to empty bucket loads of pouring rain into the open stadium. The sun had disappeared, the dark clouds covering the entire sky and becoming a sickening green color.

"Your plants are no match for my powers." Kurai said, her own hair swirling in violent torrents of deep blue and silver. "You will not walk out of this fight alive."

"Kurai!" Chi screamed from the sidelines, lurching out of Kage's grasp. "Stop! You'll tear down the whole stadium! Please, stop it!" tears streamed down her face, drying in the icy wind before they fell from her cheeks. Kage pulled her back, holding her close so she wouldn't blow away.

Kurai didn't hear her. "What's wrong, Kurama? Fight back!" Lightning flashed, striking down beside Kurama's right foot. A huge thunder clap resounded, shaking the entire stadium. Demons were clambering over one another to get away, fearful that they too would be blown away.

Kurama jumped, his plants sizzling loudly from the lightning strike. They had caught fire from the heat, and were shriveling away to nothingness.

Terja dug her dragon talons deep into the dirt to keep herself steady, and pulled Hiei in front of her so he would be semi protected from floating off in the wind. "Why isn't he fighting back?" she shouted, but her voice was lost in the wind. Just as she asked, crackling black energy surrounded the arena, and the wind began to die down.

"What is this?" Koto's scream into the microphone came from somewhere randomly in the stadium. "Is this what I think it is? If it is, then Kurai could be in for a detour from her almost victory!"

"It's Yoko!" someone shouted.

Kurai's face twisted into a horrible grin. "So I've drawn out the legendary Yoko Kurama. You must be awfully desperate to rely on your demonic powers."

A fully transformed Yoko made his way through the wind, crackling energy following his footsteps. Kurai didn't look surprised to see him, but lifted her hands, palms facing outwards. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Yoko Kurama," she said, deep blue demonic energy gathering in her palms. Her mouth twitched into a small smile as she blasted him away, sending him slamming into the other side of the stadium wall.

The winds died down to a blustery sort of air, enough to keep the storm brewing but calm enough so the poor apparitions stopped blowing away. Kurai walked to the edge of the arena, where Team Reform stood and watched for Kurama to return.

"I guess he's done," she said.

"You should never underestimate your opponent," Yoko's voice came suddenly out of the blue. Behind her! Kurai whipped around in surprise, and Yoko picked her up by her throat. He squeezed, making her lash out and kick in protest. Yoko stared at her. "You're an impressive fighter, Kurai," he said. "You're blind as a bat, but you still managed to cause all this devastation. This will be a fight I will remember for a long time."

Kurai's milky eyes filled with rage, their phosphorescent glow dimming. "Yes...it will..." she growled, wrenching free of the kitsune's grasp. She landed on her ass, and the winds picked up again. She climbed to her feet, her fury rising.

"This is sad," Yoko said, almost disappointed. "Rage does nothing for you, little demoness. It only clouds your mind. And when you're not thinking clearly," he vanished again. Reappearing behind her, he whispered-- "you'll never find me." Dark vines wrapped around her body, carrying her high, high up into the sky, into the eye of her storm.

"What's going on?" Chi wailed, looking at Kage, teary eyed. Kage blinked, confusion written all over her face.

"I don't know," she said.

A plant sprouted on Yoko's back that almost resembled moth wings. They were red, with white edges. Yoko's mouth twitched into a smirk before he took off, flying up into the storm after Kurai.

Kuwabara's mouth dropped open. "Since when does Kurama FLY?!"

"It's a plant, you imbecile," Hiei informed him. "Kurama is not a bird, he doesn't fly. He's a fox who uses plants. It would only be common sense that those ridiculous appendages you perceive as wings are plants."

Up in the sky, Yoko soared in front of his newly captured prey. "What does it feel like, Kurai?" he asked calmly. "When you are the hunted?"

"You wouldn't know the half of it," she spat in his face. Her spittle landed on his cheek. Yoko did not look pleased, and thus gave her a roundhouse kick to the face. He narrowed his eyes.

"I do not know what it is like to be hunted? I, who was a thief and a criminal? No," he smiled sarcastically. "I do not know."

Kurai fumed. "You will never know what it is like to be hunted like a mere animal," she seethed. "Like game, where you are herded like cattle. Where you are brought to slaughter to feed a bloodthirsty demon lord."

Yoko was not fazed. "You cannot change the past. So get your head out of your ass and in the game. It's time you quit screwing around and fought like a real demon. This is no challenge for me."

Kurai's eyes widened, in disbelief that she had just been informed that she was not a challenge in the arena. If they were on the floor, she would have already been disqualified in a ten count. The plants holding her began to smoke profusely. The plants turned to ash, blowing away as burning cinders. "Then I guess we'll have to take things up a notch," she grinned, her ankles crackling with brilliant lightning that held her suspended in the air.

Yoko pulled a rose seemingly from nowhere, whipping it out to its full length as his famous rose whip. He cracked it loudly, wrapping it around Kurai's wrist. "You can't burn this plant," he said as she tried striking up a fire onto his whip. "It's much stronger than anything I used on you before." he yanked her close, then spun her out so she flew outside of the eye and into the storm. He followed her, carefully approaching the storm. He flew inside, and sort of regretted it. The winds had picked up and were even more violent than before. The clouds were black and that ugly, sickening, bright greenish color. Rain whipped with the wind, hitting him like millions of tiny needles piercing his skin over and over again. Kurai was nowhere to be seen.

"It's about to get hot in here," she breathed into his ear from behind him. He turned, but she was gone. How had he lost her? His kitsune ears strained hard against the horrible howling of the wind, but picked up nothing but its depressing wail.

Hot sparks landed on his face and arms, causing some mild pain. He looked around, and his eyes widened in shock as a huge flaming torrent came barreling towards him, flowing with the wind speed. He was caught in the full blast, and he was burning, burning, white hot pain, searing, singeing...

Yoko fell from the sky, his plant wings' completely disintegrated. He plummeted, faster and faster until he finally crashed into the ground, shattering the arena floor. Somewhere out of the wreckage climbed Koto, mike still in hand.

"Ahem," she coughed, trying to clear some of the dusty debris in the air. The storm began to clear. "Can we go to a ten count please?" The screen flickered to life.

Kurai came down from her storm, her fury dying down with the storm. When she landed she was as calm and azure as she had been before the whole fight even started. She looked down at Yoko. "A fight to remember." she smirked, shaking her head and walking away. She landed lightly on her feet as she jumped off the platform, returning to her teammates. Chi was bawling her eyes out, her ears pinned and big green eyes gushing water. Kage was holding her closely, stroking her friend's scarlet hair.

"It's all right, Chi," she said. "Shhh, it's OK. Kurai's back."

Chi's sobs became louder, and she buried her face even deeper into Kage's black long sleeve shirt. She patted Chi's head thoughtfully. "Don't dig too deep into it, Chi," she said. "Everyone's OK. No one died. Kurai's back, and she's fine. Stop worrying, OK? I don't like it when you worry. Chi? Chi, look at me." she grabbed Chi's face and forced her to look her in the eyes. "Quit freaking out. We're all fine. Everything's OK. Do you understand me?" Chi nodded miserably. Kage let go of her face.

Kurai turned to Chi. "My darling Chi, is everything all right?"

Chi stopped crying. "I told you to stop," she said, her eyebrows knitting together. "And you nearly wrecked everything. People are dead. How could you do this?"

"Chi, it's kind of part of the tournament," Renee said softly, speaking up. "People die here. It's sort of, you know, expected. There are lots of casualties. It's not fair a lot of the time, but that's the way the rules are set up."

Chi frowned. "I don't like it." she said. "I quit."

"What?" Kage said, puzzled.

"You can't quit," Renee exclaimed. "What'll we do short a fighter?"

"You'll just have to find another," Chi sniffed. "Because I quit this team. I don't want to be in this tournament any more. I'm done." she wiped her tears off her face, and stood tall to face Kurai. "I'm sorry, Kurai, but I'm leaving." that said, she breezed past them all and walked out of the stadium.

"Chi!!" Kage shouted after her, jogging to catch up. Kurai caught her arm. "What're you doing? We have to go after Chi! You can't just let her leave!"

"Let her go," Kurai said, holding firmly onto Kage's arm. "She won't be going anywhere too far. Don't worry about it. We already have two wins. We only need one more to put our team ahead, and two more to assure moving on to the next round. Kage, I'm putting you in the next fight."

The three turned to look at the screen, which had flashed Kurai's victory moments before. Kurai pushed Kage forward. "Go on. Fight."

Kage stared blankly at the arena. How was she supposed to fight with one of her best friends running away? She climbed obediently onto the platform, standing beside a rather bewildered Koto.

"Ah yes," Koto said, getting back on track. "What a dazzling fight that was! What a show Kurai and Yoko put on! Although Yoko lost, unfortunately there wasn't much blood. His loss was in vain-- disqualified by the ten count! But the next fight promises to be spectacular as well, as we match up the famous jaganshi Hiei from Team Reform against newbie Kage Kancho from Team Kaleo! I don't know about you, but I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of what this team has to offer! Would both fighters please enter the arena? All right-- on my count: three...two...one...FIGHT!"

------------

**A/N:** So, if some of the characters submitted seem a little weird, I kind of tweaked their personalities a little bit to fit the story line. My apologies.

-s-chan-


	23. Hiei vs Kage Kancho

**A/N:** I'm glad I still have reviewers after not updating for such a long time! But the story is only about half done. We're only in round two, and there's a total of five rounds. But I've been updating fairly quickly, so hopefully it'll be completed soon (ish). 

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_Team Kaleo vs. Team Reform_

_Team Hitokiri vs. Team Ukishima_

_Team T.C. vs. Team Kono_

--------------

Chi stumbled out of the stadium, gasping for air and furiously rubbing her puffy eyes. She sat down next to a nearby rock, and leaned her back against its cold surface. She took a deep breath, trying to clear her mind. What had she been thinking? She had just quit her team; abandoned her best friend Kage and her guardian Kurai.

"What am I going to do now?" she moaned aloud, putting her head down on her knees, which she had drawn up close to her chest. She sighed, her bobcat ears drooping.

There was a commotion behind her. On top of the rock! She turned around, half expecting it to be Kage. But instead of her best friend, a fragile looking kitsune with dark blue ears sat perched on her rock. She scooted over, surprised that someone she barely knew had joined her.

"I saw your fight," he said. He turned to look at her, his dark blue hair flopping in his eyes. "How come you're not back with your team? Kage is still fighting."

"Yeah," she said softly. "I kind of quit."

"Oh," he said, surprised. He slid into the grass next to her. "How come?"

She shrugged. "I don't know. I'm tired of it, I guess. It's just not for me. I'm not really a fighter. I don't like to fight with people."

He nodded like he understood. "I see." They sat in silence for a couple minutes. Chi snuck a look at her companion. He was staring at his hands, which were pulling out blades of grass and laying them down randomly. His blue tail swished, hitting her hand.

"Um..." she said, breaking the moment. "I sort of...don't remember your name...what is it again? Sorry."

"It's Z," he said, smiling. "That's OK. Don't worry about it. Are you all right? You look like you've been crying."

"I'm fine," she said, a small smile creeping onto her tan face. "No really. Kurai just...angers me. She's a good person, really. It's just that everything is always what she wants."

"From what Kage told me before, she kind of seems to run your life for you," he said.

"Something like that."

Z looked over at her. "So what are you going to do then? Since you quit? Are you gonna go back to Kurai and Kage, or something else?"

Chi grew thoughtful. "I'm not sure. I don't really have any where to stay now...and I can't go back to the hotel room with them. Then everything will just go back to normal and I'll have to be with Kurai again."

Z stood, brushing the grass off his jeans. "Well...how about we take a walk, and we'll see if we can find somewhere for you to stay." He held out his hand to help her up.

She stared at his hand for a moment before taking it. "I'd like that." she said, getting up.

--------------

Kage stood in the mangled arena, facing the infamous jaganshi Hiei. She felt horrible. How could Kurai have just brushed off little Chi like that? Chi would be lost...where would she stay without her team? In the trees?

While the idea of Chi sleeping in a tree wasn't something she was thrilled about, she knew that the kitten could survive quite easily. The thing was simply that Kurai hadn't given a shit when Chi had left. How could she not have cared? Chi was their little one, their kitten! Her best friend had taken off, and the person who was supposed to watch over her had left her by herself and been totally apathetic about it.

Hiei looked at Kage without much interest. "Kurama tells me that you're quite the fighter," he said suddenly. "In fact, you've earned quite the reputation."

"I have?" she said, surprised.

Hiei smirked. "You've been under consideration for the next spirit detective. And while that doesn't apply to me, I do think it will be slightly entertaining to spar with another detective. I thought the spirit detective reign had ended with Koenma, but it appears that he's come back."

Kage's eyes open wide and her mouth hung open rather rudely. "Koenma? Seriously? Wait, they want me to be a what? Why? Who said that?"

"You ask a lot of questions," Hiei said, "let's just cut to the chase and fight, shall we?" he took off his cloak, throwing it somewhere to the side. He vanished in a flicker of black.

Kage stood perfectly still, concentrating on finding her opponent. Where was he? She closed her eyes. To the left! Her eyes opened, and she raised her left arm to block a punch that was meant for her face. Hiei responded with another punch, this time to the abdomen. She flew back, knocking into one of the chunks of the arena sticking out of the ground.

"This is too easy," Hiei said disapprovingly. "I expected a challenge, but this is more like taking candy from a rather retarded human child."

Kage stood, taking Chi's defensive stance. "Oh I'll make it a challenge all right," she said. Black and white energy sparked from her fists, erupting into a dark flame that wrapped around, with white flashes crackling through it.

Hiei smirked again, his own fists suddenly combusting into his Fists of the Mortal Flame. "Better," he said. In a flurry of black and white, Hiei and Kage were suddenly fist to fist, throwing lightning fast punches.

"Wow, this incredible display of firepower seems to have sparked some life back into Kage! She's battling Hiei with the same enthusiasm we saw in Kurai against Yoko Kurama! No telling how this one'll end either, folks! This new team is just full of surprises!" Koto shouted.

Kage and Hiei landed some feet away, pausing in their spectacular fist fight. The flames dissipated from Kage's fists, and she stood tall with one hand in the air. Hard black scales rippled down from her hand, spreading down her arms and traveling up her neck to her face until her entire body was coated in thick, ebony dragon scales.

Hiei didn't look particularly impressed. "Let's see if your iron scales can withstand this." the bandages on his arm burnt away, and the dragon tattoo was revealed. The dragon roared, and enlarged from his arm and rose up high, screeching at Kage.

Kage wasn't fazed. She opened her mouth, a loud screech that sounded much like the dragon's emanating from her jaws. Brilliant orange flames shot from her mouth, causing the dragon to pause in its path. It roared, barreling through her stream of fire towards her.

Kage screeched again as the dragon came for her. White spirit energy crackled around her fists, which she raised up towards the dragon. When it was on top of her she held out her palms, brilliant white energy shooting into the dragon's face. It cried out, rearing up in the air.

_"What?!"_ Hiei shouted, faint over the roar of his Dragon of the Darkness Flame. His dragon turned around, almost as if it were confused. It headed back for Hiei, who ripped off his bandanna covering his jagan eye. The jagan opened, glowing brightly. The dragon stalled at the sight of the jagan, and turned around, headed back for Kage.

Kage glared at the dragon, her eyes glowing white. "You chose the wrong attack, Hiei," she said. "I'm half dragon-- and all dragons fall under my command!" she raised her arm again, and the dragon screamed. It writhed, turning back again and plummeting back for Hiei. But instead of consuming him, it wrapped back around his arm to form his winding tattoo. Hiei looked stricken for a moment as he took in the pain of the dragon flowing back into him, but regained his cool moments later.

"Impressive," he said. "No one has ever withstood the dragon head on."

"I bet you've never fought with a dragon, either," she replied. Hiei's jagan opened wider.

"I guess I'll just have to take a different approach," he smirked, the jagan glowing purple. He drew his katana, and shot towards Kage at lightning speed.

Kage looked surprised, and blocked Hiei's oncoming attacks with her steely scaled arms. He hit repeatedly, over and over again.

"It looks like Hiei's wearing down Kage's armor!" Koto noticed. "How long before she misses a blow and takes a stab? It won't be much longer, I can tell you that!"

"Damnit!" Kage growled. Her scales were wearing down from the barrage of hundreds of blows from a sharpened katana. She could feel the friction of the blade on her skin, a warm tingling feeling creeping up her arms.

Hiei's blows became even more concentrated, focusing on a single spot close to her elbows. Each blow came heavier and heavier, but so quickly that it was all she could do to block them from shanking her in the face. With a final blow, Hiei's sword erupted into black and green flames, slicing down into Kage's scales. She cried out in pain, ducking out of the way of the blunt of the swing. She slid away from Hiei, holding the place where her scales had been sliced through. White scales rippled over the place where he had cut into her steely armor.

Hiei eyed her carefully. "Your armor can't withstand the brute force of my katana for much longer. Let's end this, shall we?" he vanished again. Kage looked slightly bewildered now. She was powerful, but not that powerful. Hiei was beginning to wear her down, and tear up her greatest defense at the same time.

A powerful blow to the back of her head knocked her over, sending her sprawling onto the floor. She had lost her concentration and hadn't been able to find her opponent before he struck. He took the opportunity and whipped his sword out, holding it to her neck before she could get up.

Koto looked to the screen, which was already on a ten count. Kage stayed down, glaring at Hiei's katana. Her scales rippled away as the ten count ended, disqualifying her from the match. She stood, walking back to her team, huffing slightly out of anger.

"What happened?" Renee jumped up as Kage came back. "Your armor's impenetrable! How come you didn't get back up? You could have easily gotten back up, your scales would have protected you from his katana!"

Kage shook her head, tossing her white hair over her shoulder. "No, that was the end. If Hiei had hit my scales like he was planning, he would have slit my throat. He had been hitting me more times than I had realized-- not just in the arm, but all over my entire body. He was weakening me enough to use the power of his jagan to pry open my armor and get a clean shot at my skin." she smiled, even though purple bruises were beginning to form on her face, neck, and shoulders.

"So that just leaves me," Renee said, climbing into the arena. She looked out. Her opponent was the only one left-- the dragon woman Terja. "I can take her, easy."

Terja walked calmly into the arena. Koto looked to both fighters, glad that the final fight in this round on the surface was taking place. "Ladies and gentlemen, Renee from Team Kaleo versus Terja from Team Reform! Fight!"

Terja's great tail swished to the side, a gust of air blowing towards her opponent. She cocked her head to the side, waiting for Renee. Renee didn't waste time in jumping into the battle right away. She drew a white lily from her brown hair, snapping it. It extended out into a whip much like Kurama's, only shorter and much smoother. She cracked it loudly, running for Terja. She snapped the whip, nicking Terja in the arm. The dragon woman blinked, looking down at her bleeding arm. Renee had taken a decent chunk of skin out of her.

"That was pathetic," Terja said, looking back at her. She had to look down, since she stood so much taller than everyone else in the entire arena. She lowered her head, butting Renee with her large violet horns. The kitsune fell, crumpling beneath the weight of the sickle horns. She whipped her tail around, the deadly barb on the end lashing into Renee's upper thigh. She screamed as it tore out of her skin. She got up, and leapt a bit farther away from the demoness to assess her situation.

Terja stood, watching and waiting. She had a look of almost boredom on her face as she blinked lazily at Koto, and then inspected her claws for any dirt caked onto them. Renee made another charge, but was stopped by Terja taking a huge swipe at her with her claws. She raked across Renee's shirt, ripping off a good portion of the bottom of it.

"This is boring." Terja said lightly, swaying to some imaginary tune only she could hear. She opened her mouth, and a great gust of orange flames shot out, aiming for Renee. She hit her target dead on, which burst into flames and was sent rolling on the grounds of the arena in an attempt to extinguish the fires. Terja walked towards her, whipping her tail at the fox girl again. She stepped on her as she squirmed on the ground in pain, digging her talons deep into her enemy's skin.

"The two girls on your team are quite impressive," Terja told her, twisting her talons within her prey's flesh. "But you and the bobcat kitten need to improve your skills to be able to even play in the same league."

"...eight...nine...ten!" Koto followed with the ten count on screen. "And Renee has been disqualified as well! Which leaves both teams with an even amount of wins and losses, which means our underground arena will have to determine who moves on with the last two fighters from these teams-- and neither one of them had chosen an alternate! Which means the next fight will be the ice apparition Yukina from Team Reform versus Hotaru, the fifth fighter for Team Kaleo and until recently the King of Demon's personal assistant!"

--------------

Yusuke looked at the screen, fairly bewildered. He had set up the teams, had glanced over her name, but was still surprised to hear Yukina's name used in terms of combat against others. He pressed a button, flipping the security feed to Team Reform. Hiei didn't look entirely thrilled. And with good cause, too. Yusuke knew what kind of a punch Hotaru was packing, and from what he had seen he didn't think that Yukina should be going anywhere near his ex-assistant.

"It looks like I won't be seeing Team Reform in the finals," he said aloud to himself, chuckling. He didn't know if Yukina had been training to fight in such a battle, but he was sort of hoping she would hold up for a while to make the fight entertaining, at least. He inwardly allowed himself something like a giggle. Hotaru was much, much older than him, and was classified as an A class demoness. Her power was immeasurable, possibly enough to match his own. But Hotaru had never fully tapped the extent of her powers, leaving them lying dormant within her.

Since it looked like a surefire victory for Team Kaleo, Yusuke looked at the next set of fights, which were scheduled for the next day. Team Hitokiri versus Team Ukishima. He smirked. Finally he would see if the power of this new "Masked Fighter" added up anywhere close to Genkai's.

------------

-s-chan-


	24. Yukina vs Hotaru

**A/N:** My apologies for making everybody wait… again…

Since Magus Black was the one who messaged me and reminded me to get my ass in gear, this chapter is dedicated to him-- thanks for reminding me!

--

Venice's ivory face replaced Koto's furry one on the surface screen, microphone in hand. "The underground fightsss will commence in five minutesss," she announced, the camera flashing to reveal Hotaru standing opposite Yukina.

Yusuke's eyes flickered from the suffocating crowd of demons in the stands to the big screen. He had been standing in the crowd for some time now, hiding in plain sight. Now he brought his attention to the close-up shot of Yukina's picture beside Hotaru's.

Yukina looked calm, like she wasn't aware she was about to rush into the fight of her life. She seemed different: older, maybe. Her minty hair had been pushed out of her face into a ponytail, making her crimson eyes stand out. She was dressed in white sweatpants and a mint green tank top, abandoning her usual green kimono for better fighting attire.

Yusuke's eyes shifted to Hotaru, and her eyes locked with his. So the demoness had been tracking his moves, he mused. He gave her a mock smile, and her face flared with anger.

"I gather she's still pissy with you," Hiei said, suddenly beside the King. Yusuke glanced over to his former friend, unsure of what he wanted now.

"Most likely." he replied, trying to gage Hiei's reactions.

Hiei's eyes rolled up to look at Yusuke, his body motionless. "You know that if Yukina is in any danger whatsoever that I will interfere," he said suddenly. "and I will end your little game of cat and mouse. I know why we're here, Yusuke. I'm not stupid. And I will not fall prey to your idiotic charade of being _'king of the demons.'" _he spat out the title.

Yusuke's eyebrow twitched slightly, enough for the fire apparition to notice. Hiei turned, facing Yusuke, irritating him. "I wouldn't be here if it weren't for Yukina insisting that we come to save your ass. In my opinion, _king, _you're not worth the effort." he said coldly before vanishing, moving nearer to his sister's fight.

Yusuke looked on, surveying the scene before him. "Come to save me, have you?" he smiled to himself, chuckling. He couldn't wait for Hiei to find out that he didn't have a clue. Come to save the king of demons. What a joke.

"Fightersss, pleassse ssstep forward!" Venice said loudly, catching Yukina and Hotaru's attention. They moved forward, advancing into the center of the ring. "Ladiesss and gentlemen, the next fight isss about to begin! Hotaru of Team Kaleo versssusss Yukina of Team Reform!" She glanced at the two fighters, "Begin!"

Hotaru crossed her arms, relaxing her body. "I don't really want to fight you, Yukina." she smiled. "You're far too frail an opponent for me to break so easily. I'd feel bad."

"Bitch!" Mar-lo muttered from the stands, listening to their conversation broadcasted throughout the entire stadium.

Yukina's face remained still. The air began to get chilly, a sharp gust of wind suddenly blowing through the stadium. The ice demoness felt her fingers and face tingling from the cold, sharp little needles that jabbed her all at once. She smiled back at Hotaru, whose cheeks and nose had began to flush red in the sudden cold.

"That's all right, Hotaru," she said gently. "I know that you don't want to have your ass handed to you right in front of your lover." she jerked her thumb towards Yusuke.

The cameras swiveled to zoom in on the king, who looked surprised that he was suddenly on screen across both stadiums. Venice looked like she had stumbled onto a pot of gold. "I can't believe it! Hotaru-chan hasss been fucking the king of demonsss! No wonder ssshe'sss gotten ssso far in the tournament!"

Hotaru's eyes got wide, embarrassment and anger flushing her face a nice shade of pink. She clenched her fists, her glare shifting from Yusuke's face on the huge screen to Yukina, who smirked at her success in drawing out Hotaru's anger.

Hotaru sprung into action. Her boots clicked loudly as she stormed over by Yukina, energy bursting from every part of her body. It radiated with heat, crackling in the air, singeing Yukina's hair. She had successfully pissed off an S class demon, whose eyes raged with murder as she stalked towards Yukina with the full intent to kill.

"Oh, shit!" Kage bit her lip as she watched the underground fight on screen. "That was a low blow…totally below the belt…" Kurai nodded in agreement.

Yukina saw her coming, but didn't have enough time to react before Hotaru grabbed her by her hair and threw her to the ground, ripping a nice handful of hair out in the process.

"What a bitchy move! It looksss like thisss is more of a cat fight than a tournament match!"

As Yukina's hips slammed hard into the arena, Hotaru kicked her full force in the temple, steel toe boot connecting hard with Yukina's porcelain skin. A huge gust of wind blew Hotaru back, knocking her off balance. She fumbled for a minute, but regained her balance and came back after Yukina, her temper raging. Yukina vanished, reappearing at the opposite side of the arena to regain her composure. She stood with one hand raised elegantly pointed in Hotaru's direction, ice crystals forming mid-air. They pointed towards Hotaru, dagger sharp, and hurtled towards her in a gust of snowy wind. Completely unfazed, Hotaru stood perfectly still as her aura burst into white hot flames, scorching the ground and melting the jagged ice crystals before they came within feet of their target.

"Hotaru hasn't even broken a sweat yet!" Kuwabara exclaimed, standing close to Hiei.

"Don't worry, dimwit," Hiei said, his voice low. "Yukina hasn't given up yet."

"Hotaru isss melting all of Yukina'sss ice movesss before they even get close! If Yukina doesssn't get her head in the game sssoon, it looksss like Hotaru will be the winner!"

Yukina closed her eyes. Hotaru took the advantage of this temporary opening to run forward, flames engulfing her fists. She barreled straight for the ice apparition, the ground smoking as she moved lightning fast across the platform. Yukina's face remained serene, the blood that had been oozing slowly from her temple from Hotaru's swift kick to the face disappearing as the wound healed itself.

Everyone in the stands watched intently, all eyes trained on what would happen in the next few seconds. Each member of Team Reform had their eyes glued to the screen as they sweated out the wait.

A moment passed, and the entire stadium was silent. There was an enormous clap of thunder, and white energy crackled from the platform. The entire stage exploded within seconds of the bang, a huge mushroom cloud climbing towards the ceiling. The shockwave that resounded blew audience members all the way to the back wall, slamming them hard against the concrete.

Yusuke was forced a couple steps back, then began using a sliver of his demonic energy to keep him in place. He squinted, watching as the smoke began to rise from the platform. The silver screen had gone blurry, the explosion taking out the cameras.

Suddenly Koto came onscreen. "Ladies and gentlemen, I apologize for the technical difficulties," she said frantically, safe inside of a box office somewhere on the surface. She cleared her throat. "It appears that the energy from the attacks of Hotaru and Yukina were too much for the system to handle, and the video feed was temporarily disabled. Oh shit! What is that?"

"What is she talking about?" Mar-lo stood up, spilling a large drink all over the demon sitting in front of him. "Hey! What the hell's going on?"

Everyone on the surface stared at Koto's face on the screen as she watched some secret footage being streamed through the box office. She looked dumbfounded, and fumbled with the buttons in front of her so that the live feed she was watching was suddenly transferred to the big screen. The video switched over, and Venice appeared.

"Koto, thisss isssn't like anything we've ever ssseen before! You've gotta sssee thisss ssshit!" Venice turned the lens away from herself and toward the stage, the image jostling as she tried to balance the handheld camera.

"I ssstole a digital camera off of sssome demon," she explained into the microphone. "Ssso until the sssmoke clearsss, thisss isss going to have to do." The image traveled up the steps as Venice climbed the stairs again, approaching the stage.

"Look at thisss ssshit." she said, crouching down low on the platform. Smoke was still clearing, and neither fighter was visible. Three huge ice pillars towered all the way to the ceiling, even more ice sloping down the walls and patches across the floor. The ice towers glittered in the dim lighting, stretching halfway across the platform. The floor was completely shredded, torn up as easily as tissue paper. Shards of ice lay across the broken floor, weapons busted and shattered by Hotaru and Yukina. Scorch marks blackened the floor, giant black streaks from the explosion.

"Where are the fighters?" the surface crowd started crying out. "Who won?"

--

In the underground stadium, Hiei was scanning the crowd for any sign of his sister. Demon bodies lay scattered all over the ground, a good portion of the crowd baked alive in the heat of the fiery explosion.

Yusuke approached him from behind, placing his hand on Hiei's shoulder. "I don't think she made it, Hiei." he said, his face serious. "I don't think either of them did."

Hiei violently ripped Yusuke's hand off his shoulder, pivoting to face the King of demons. His eyes lit with fire, he snarled in Yusuke's direction, "Don't speak to me, you filthy bastard. If I don't find Yukina alive in this stadium, don't count on living to see the light of day again."

Yusuke put his hands in his pockets and smiled. "I guess you'll just have to go find out, then." But Hiei was already gone before he even finished his sentence.

He reappeared on the stage, furious with Yusuke for causing a possibility of danger to his sister. He was even more angry with himself for letting her enter in the tournament.

"Yukina!" he shouted. His words hung in the still air, empty.

Maybe she really didn't make it.

His jagan glowed in rage. Hatred rampaged through him. If Yukina was dead, then Yusuke would be too.


End file.
